A/HRC/4/21/Add.1 page 47 flogged. They were among the 173 members of the community arrested on 13 February 2006 after police and organized pro-Government groups broke up their peaceful protest. 192. On 3 May, the General Criminal Court in Qom convicted 52 members of the Nematollahi Sufi community and their lawyers Farshad Yadollahi and Omid Behroozi, on the charges of ‘disobeying the orders of Government officials’ and ‘disturbing public order’. For the first charge, 25 individuals deemed to have a more “active” role in the incident were fined 10 million Iranian Rials (more than US$ 1,000), and the remaining individuals were fined 5 million Iranian Rials (more than US$ 500). For conviction on the second charge they were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and to 74 lashes. After their release from prison they will be required to present themselves to local security officials every month for two years. In addition, lawyers Farshad Yadollahi and Omid Behroozi were disqualified from the legal profession for 5 years. 193. According to the court verdict, some of those detained ‘confessed’ to the charges against them. It is not known under what circumstances these confessions were made. All were given 20 days to appeal the judgement and are currently free on bail. By the beginning of March, almost all of the other members of the group who were arrested at the protest had been released. It is not known whether any of these will face formal charges at a later stage. It is believed that many have had cases opened against them. In April, the main preacher for the Nematollahi Sufi group in Qom, Seyed Ahmadi Shariat, was detained and charged with ‘disobeying the orders of Government officials’ and ‘disturbing public order’. He was released on bail pending trial. Observations 194. The Special Rapporteur regrets that she has not received a response from the Government with regard to these allegations. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur would like to refer to her framework for communications, more specifically to the international human rights norms and to the mandate practice concerning “Discrimination on the basis of religion or belief/inter-religious discrimination/tolerance” (see above para. 1, category II. 1.). Urgent appeal sent on 9 June 2006 jointly with the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 195. The Special Procedures mandate holders brought to the attention of the Government information they received regarding the arrest and continued detention of three members of the Bahá’í community in the city of Shiraz. According to the allegations, on 19 May 2006, Ms. Haleh Roohi, Ms. Raha Sabet and Mr. Sassan Taqva were arrested together with 51 other Bahá’í in the city of Shiraz. The arrested Bahá’í were involved in community work, with a local non-Governmental organization, at the time of their arrest. They were in possession of a letter of permission of the Islamic Council in Shiraz for this work. 196. On 20 May 2006, the judge in charge of all cases stated that most of the detainees would be released soon. This was confirmed by an official at the Ministry of Information in Shiraz who informed a family-member that the detainees would be released within 48 hours. None of the persons arrested have been formally charged with an offence. 51 Bahá’í have since been released but Ms. Haleh Roohi, Ms. Raha Sabet and Mr. Sassan Taqva remain detained.