Sunni Muslims jailed in Iran have issued an International Human Rights Day message condemning the death sentences on 30 fellow prisoners and widespread violations of their rights.
The 81 Sunnis in Gohardasht prison in city of Karaj said they had been tried without lawyers in the Tehran’s Revolutionary Court and that the public had been banned from the hearing.
They wrote: "With great sacrifice we are sending a message from prison where we have been subjected to repeated pressure and harassment by the prison authorities.
"We want our voice heard by international human rights bodies, but unfortunately this has not happened, and even in the report by Dr Ahmed Shaheed (the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights situation in Iran) there is very little reference to our case."
The message said Iran's Sunni religious minority comprises 20 per cent of the population, but less attention had been paid to plight than to other religious minorities.
The message added: ""In the southern provinces where Sunnis live, their lives have no value. Not only are political and religious activists being arrested, imprisoned, tortured and sentenced to death, but those poor people who labour for a living are being shot and killed by border guards.
"Protests and hunger strikes by Sunni political prisoners have gained little attention by international news outlets and international human rights bodies."
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