New York, NY, May 3, 2000…The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed its outrage and distress at the farcical court proceedings against 13 Iranian Jews in Revolutionary Court in Shiraz.

Howard P. Berkowitz, ADL National Chairman, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

We are outraged and extremely distressed by the farcical proceedings of the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz. The "confessions" of innocent Jews demonstrate the lack of credibility of this so-called judicial process.

Despite assurances that the trial would be "fair" and "open," the charges and evidence against the 13 have not been made public and no one aside from the judge, defense attorneys and defendants have been allowed into the courtroom. The judge has barred family members, diplomats, human rights activists and Jewish community leaders from the courtroom.

While no one is permitted to hear the court’s evidence or witness what is happening inside the courtroom, the defendants are paraded in front of the news media to "confess" to spying for Israel. No one knows the conditions under which these "confessions" were extracted.

The Jews have been held in prison for almost 18 months on the baseless charges of espionage, with little contact with family members and until recently no legal representation. While Iranian law guarantees the rights of all defendants to chose their own legal counsel, in this case they were made to accept the defense attorneys chosen by the judge-prosecutor. If Iran wants to be accepted back into the community of nations, it should end this charade of a trial and free the innocent Jews.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.