A/HRC/16/75 forgiven her”, but she was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.33 On 9 February 2011, the Prosecutor General announced that the sentence of Ms. Ashtiani had not been revoked.34 During the trial proceedings, however, the authorities arrested Javid Houtan Kiyan, her defence attorney, and Sajjad Qaderzadeh, her son, and also aired her confessions on television, which raised serious concerns about the fairness of the trial proceedings. E. Women’s rights 23. In previous reports submitted to the General Assembly, the Secretary-General has reported in detail on concerns relating to the protection of women’s rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In particular, he has expressed concern at the oppression of women’s rights activists and female journalists, many of whom have faced intimidation and harassment and, in some cases, detention or travel bans. In her report submitted to the Human Rights Council in June 2010, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences reported on several past communications with the Iranian authorities (see annex), particularly in relation to arrested members of a campaign for equality known as the One Million Signatures campaign.35 The Iranian authorities contest that there is a wide spectrum of women’s rights activists in the country, but that some individuals have failed to gain permission for their non-governmental organizations or have engaged in illegal activities and disturbed public order. Other women’s rights-related cases are dealt with elsewhere in the present report, including with respect to stoning and freedom of association, opinion and expression. F. Rights of minorities 24. Concerns continued with respect to the treatment of the Baha’i community and other minorities in the country, situations that have been highlighted in previous reports of the Secretary-General submitted to the General Assembly. Special procedures mandate holders continued to raise cases involving members of the Baha’i community with the Iranian authorities. The authorities note that, while Baha’i is not recognized as an official religion, its followers enjoy equal social, civil and citizen’s rights; they claim, however, that the Baha’i community has recruited members by irregular means or has acted against national security. On 13 August 2010, a number of special procedures mandate holders36 drew the attention of authorities to the cases of at least six members of the Baha’i community – Ghavamoddin Sabetian, Hedayatollah Rezaie, Houman Hourbod, Noura Nabilzadeh, Sara Mahboubi and Moshtagh Samandari – who were arrested by officials from the Ministry of Intelligence in the months of June and July 2010. Concerns were expressed that, in most cases, the agents searched their homes and confiscated materials related to their religion. 25. In August 2010, seven Baha’i community leaders – Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saied Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, Vahid Tizfahm and Mahvash Sabet – were sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment; their sentences were subsequently reduced to 10 years. The seven had been detained since 14 May 2008, although only appeared for trial on 12 January 2010. The High Commissioner has raised their case several times in letters addressed to and meetings with the Iranian authorities, expressing her deep 33 34 35 36 Quote by Iranian press sources of the Chairwoman of the Iranian Parliament Human Rights Committee, in a written communication to the President of Brazil. See www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1696800&Lang=E. www.isna.ir/isna/newsview.aspx?id=news-1711851&lang=p. A/HRC/14/22/Add.1. The Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, the Working on Arbitrary Detention and the Independent Expert on minority issues. 9