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Reports and breaking news

20 000 signatures, rodne cislo and podpis

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Category: News
Created: Friday, 27 April 2007 03:45
Published: Friday, 27 April 2007 03:38
Written by monarey, Offenbach, Germany
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The last 6 days I spent in Slovakia walking Bratislavas streets up and down and trying to get as many names, adresses, rodne cislos and finally signautres as I could. As many might know, the Slovakian Baha'i community had asked as many friends as possible to come and help them get 20 000 signatures so they could register the Faith in slovakia. Due to a little failure in Slovak law any religious "movement", "organization" etc. can register if only they have 20 000 valid signatures from Slovak people that support the registration in Slovakia instead of having 20 000 members! This law will change in exactly 30 days time so today our final 22 000 valid signatures together with about 5000 invalid signatures have been given to the slovak ministery of culture and education in order to register the Baha'i community in Slovakia. (Did all that make sense?)

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Chain of appeals keeps gangster in Canada

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Category: News
Created: Thursday, 26 April 2007 04:18
Published: Thursday, 26 April 2007 04:09
Written by Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun
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Thirty-two-year-old convicted robber Omid Bayani, a member of the notorious UN gang, was declared too dangerous to stay in Canada in 1997 and ordered out in 1999.

Omid Bayani was just five when his father was murdered in Iran, the word Bahai written in big letters on his bare chest.

{josquote}It dubbed itself after the United Nations because it is a multi-ethnic gang with Indo-Canadians, whites, Iranians and Asian members.{/josquote}

Now the 32-year-old convicted robber is alleged to be involved in a criminal organization working with the Hells Angels to traffic drugs across Canada.

And despite being ordered deported in 1999, Bayani has managed to stay in B.C., launching review after appeal as police allege he became entrenched in a underworld of crime, rising in the ranks of a street gang called the UN or United Nations.

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Arrested biker ordered deported in 1999

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Category: News
Created: Sunday, 08 April 2007 15:48
Published: Sunday, 08 April 2007 15:18
Written by Peter Edwards, The Toronto Star
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Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino announces the details of raids on the Hells Angels in Toronto Thursday. Fantino praised the effort as a prime example of nationwide police cooperation, calling it "a good day for policing in Toronto, a good day for policing in Ontario and a good day for policing in Canada."
Brent Foster/National Post

Alleged associate of Hells Angels gang fought ruling to send him back to Iran

One of the men arrested in sweeping raids against the Hells Angels biker gang last week was ordered deported from Canada in 1999, after running up a string of criminal convictions that included five robberies.

Omid Romando Bayani, 32, is a member of the little-known biker group in British Columbia called United Nations, and he's considered by police to be an associate of the far stronger Hells Angels.

Bayani remains in custody in Toronto after being charged Wednesday with trafficking in the date rape drug GHB, conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance, and commission of an offence for a criminal organization. His bail hearing is expected Tuesday.

The police operation, dubbed Project Develop, involved raids at dawn on clubhouses in Toronto, Durham, Peel, York Region, Niagara Falls, Waterloo, Barrie, London and Hamilton and locations in B.C. and New Brunswick.

Police seized guns, nine kilograms of cocaine, more than $500,000 and 600 litres of GHB.

{josquote}...he was a stateless victim of religious persecution, whose father was murdered by Iranian fundamentalists for following the Baha'i faith...{/josquote}

Twenty-eight of the 31 people arrested in Wednesday's raids are from Ontario, with the others from B.C. and New Brunswick. Eighteen were members of the Hells Angels and three have been granted bail.

Bayani was ordered deported eight years ago, after being found guilty of five armed robberies in Red Deer, Alta. He has launched a string of unsuccessful challenges to that order.

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Other sources:
Arrested gangster has avoided deportation for eight years (Vancouver Sun)
Iranian immigrants facing deportation (The Edmonton Sun, 2001)

Court Action, Today, with 1st Amendment Implications

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Category: News
Created: Friday, 30 March 2007 16:24
Published: Friday, 30 March 2007 16:07
Written by Ross Campbell
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USA. (SANEPR.com) March 22, 2007 -- Wilmette Bahá’í Organization Threatens Minority Bahá’ís Through Court Action

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States (NSA), located in Wilmette, Illinois, has called upon the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division to hold in contempt members of minority Bahá'í organizations (the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith and the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant--two separate and distinct entities) who, the NSA claims, are in violation of an injunction its predecessor obtained some 40 years ago against a rival Bahá'í body.

In legal documents provided to the court on December 6, 2006, the NSA claimed that members of the current minority Bahá'í groups are bound by the 1966 Judgment. While not providing any specifics with regard to how the minority bodies have harmed the majority body, the NSA contends that the websites of the smaller organizations are doing irreparable damage to the NSA.

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