Still Waiting

Years after Persian Jew disappears, his mother refuses to give up hope.

on the cases.
"This is a very complicated issue,"
said Sam Kermanian, former chairman
of the federation. "These people were
Los Angeles
arrested for the purpose of putting a
Lena Tehrani turns away at the
stop to illegal Jewish migration out of
mention of her son, tears flow-
Iran. It was done basically to create
ing down her tired face. Even
fear among Jews in Iran."
10 years after the fact, the story of
Kermanian said that in the past 10
Babak Shaoulian's imprisonment in
years, the federation, in cooperation
Iran is painful to tell.
with the families of the Iranian Jewish
On June 8, 1994, Babak, then 17,
prisoners, has tried to resolve
and his friend Shaheen
their plight through diplo-
Nikkhoo, then 20, left Tehran
matic channels in the United
on a secret journey to freedom.
States and abroad and via
Leaving Iran was illegal and
political, human rights and
risky for the pair, both of
other private contacts.
whom were at the age of mili-
Frank Nikbakht, public
tary conscription.
affairs director for the coun-
The two Jewish youths
cil, said his organization has
planned to cross into Pakistan,
been collaborating for the
then head to Austria and final- Shaoulz 'an
past four years with Tehrani
ly to the United States. They
and the other families but
and the man who was smug-
had taken a more vocal public
gling them out, Atta Mohammed Rigi,
approach to the situation.
arrived in the southeastern city of
"Sometimes you have to use diplo-
Zahedan, near Iran's southeastern bor-
macy," Nikbakht said. "But for this
der with Pakistan. Eyewitnesses saw
case, because the Iranian government
the two Jews being arrested by plain-
has been lying to the prisoners' fami-
clothed secret police, Elana Tehrani
lies for so many years and promising
said.
to release them, we believe the time
"I'll never forget that day," said
has long passed for silent diplomacy;
Tehrani, who has begun to speak
and we have to use all sorts of public
about her son's disappearance on U.S.-
pressure on the Iranian government."
based Persian-language TV and radio
In 2000, with the assistance of vari-
stations. "I was in Austria, waiting for
ous American Jewish groups, the coun-
Babak to call me. Instead, the smug-
cil was successful in publicizing the
glers' relatives called and said that
Babak, Shaheen and the smugglers had case of 13 Iranian Jews from Shiraz
imprisoned in 1999 on charges of spy-
been arrested and they would help get
ing for Israel. The international expo-
them released," she said.
sure put pressure on the Iranian regime
Days turned to weeks, though, and
the smugglers gave no word on Babak's and the "Iran 13" were eventually
released. The federation also played a
condition or whereabouts. Frantic,
role, quietly working for the prisoners'
Tehrani — who by then had immi-
release through diplomatic channels.
grated to Southern California —
"Back in 2000, we wanted to bring
turned for help to two Los Angeles-
out this case of these prisoners, along
based Iranian Jewish groups. The
with the case of the Shiraz prisoners;
Iranian-American Jewish Federation
but many American Jewish organiza-
and the Council of Iranian American
tions strongly disapproved of this
Jewish Organizations have been at the
approach, so we couldn't go ahead
forefront of trying to secure the release
with it," Nikbakht said. "We thought
of the two youths, as well as 10 other
that once we had the attention of the
Iranian Jews imprisoned in the 1990s
world we should have linked these two
while trying to flee Iran through
issues and solved them together."
Pakistan.
In Israel, meanwhile, political
Pakistani officials in New York did
activist Yehuda Kassif has led a one-
not return calls requesting comment
man mission of public advocacy by
lobbying Israeli officials on behalf of
Karmel Melamed is a California free-
the prisoners' families for the past
lance journalist.

KARMEL MELAMED
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

18

seven years.
"I worked for so many years volun-
tarily because no one else seemed to
care, except for the nearest families of
course," said Kassif, who is managing
director of the Israel Precious Stones
and Diamonds Exchange.
Kassif said he has met with Israeli
officials, including President Moshe
Katsav, Prime Ministers Ehud Barak
and Ariel Sharon and members of the
Knesset, pressuring them about these
cases.
He also said he single-handedly has
tried to keep the story alive in the
Israeli media through television inter-
views, circulation of posters with the
prisoners' photos and distribution of
bottles of wine bearing their images.
Kassif said he has had little success
getting Israeli officials to take signifi-
cant action on behalf of the Iranian
Jewish prisoners.
While grateful for the support she
has received from various Jewish
groups, Tehrani said her son's case has
been forgotten over the years by the
general public. After so much time,
the Iranian government now denies
having custody of her son, she said.
"When my sister went to the
Information Ministry in Tehran
recently and asked about Babak, they
denied even having him and claimed
he was stolen by smugglers in the bor-
der area.
"It's just ridiculous!" Tehrani said. "I
know it's not true because I've had
many credible witnesses come forward
who have proof and seen my son in
Iranian prisons."
The most recent eyewitness verifying
Babak's whereabouts is an Iranian
Jewish man in Los Angeles, who asked
that his name be withheld out of con-
cerns for his own safety. In a sworn
affidavit given to the Tehrani family,
the man indicated that he had seen
Babak Shaoulian in 1996 in the infa-
mous Evin Prison in Tehran while the
witness was trying to sell nearby land
to prison officials. "As I was walking, a
jail cell with a window caught my eye.
I went forward and I saw several
youths who were sitting on the floor,"
he said in the affidavit.
"The poor kids included one whom
I knew particularly since he was my
daughter's classmate and whose name
was Babak."

Evin is among the maximum securi-
ty prisons the Iranian government uses
to hold and torture political dissidents,
student protesters, journalists and oth-
ers that the regime believes poses a
threat to its power, Nikbakht said.
Tehrani said her son's imprisonment
for the past decade has been extremely
uncommon and suggests foul play.
Iranian laws require only a fine or a
maximum two-month prison sentence
for leaving the country illegally.
"The Iranian government is holding
my son but they don't want to admit it
because it would be embarrassing to
them to have held a boy on no charges
for the last 10 years," she said.
Tehrani recently appeared on KRSI,
a Los Angeles-based Persian-language
radio station broadcasting to Iran to
ask Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, to release her son. She also
pleaded for her son's release on
Persian-language television programs
beamed from the United States into
Iran.
"At this point, I really don't care
about the politics of it all because my
son has nothing to do with it — he's
just an innocent person caught in
between this mess," Tehrani said. "I'm
even ready to go on the air and pub-
licly apologize to the Iranian govern-
ment if that's what it takes for them to
release him."
Over the past 10 years, the families
of a dozen Jewish prisoners have
formed an L.A.-based group called the
Families of Iranian Jewish Prisoners to
keep the issue in the public eye and to
continue to collect data about their
imprisoned relatives.
Iranian Jewish leaders in Southern
California said they will continue to
cautiously pursue the case, recognizing
the risk that their activity could poten-
tially pose to the approximately
20,000 Jews still living in Iran.
Tehrani and other family members
of the prisoners said that despite the
passage of time, they have not given
up hope that they will see their loved
ones again. "Hope is all I have had
these past 10 years — the hope that
someone will come forward and finally
help bring Babak back to me," Tehrani
said.
"Maybe then I will have a normal
life again knowing he's safe in my
,,
arms.
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2004

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