A court hearing to hear the charges against seven Sunni prisoners of conscience was cancelled after the court-appointed lawyers and representatives from the Ministry of Intelligence failed to turn up.

“This delay in processing the charges against these seven prisoners of conscience is entirely deliberate,” a source told the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

“The security officials do not have any evidence to prosecute these seven men, therefore each time they postpone the court,” he said.

The men, Shaykh Farhad Salimi, Davud Abdullahi, Khosro Besharat, Kamran Sheikha, Ghasem Abeste, Ayub Karimi and Anvar Khezri, have been detained for more than four years without trial.

In a previous hearing in Branch 6 Moghades Court, on 3 November 2013, the men were informed that the Ministry of Intelligence had prevented them from facing trial.

“The prosecutor [Mr Naseri] stated that their files have been archived by Intelligence and security service, and that was what prevented the court from processing the case,” a source told the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

The seven men were arrested in 2010 and kept in solitary confinement for eight months in the Ministry of Intelligence detention center in Orumieh. They were then transferred to Evin prison, and spent six months in solitary confinement in Wards 240 and 209. They were then transferred to ward 350 of Evin prison, before being transferred to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj.

HRANA