Twenty-six prominent Australian lawyers, a former human rights commissioner and the Australian Lawyers for Human Rights have written an open letter calling for the release of seven Baha'i leaders in Iran. The letter, addressed to Iran's ambassador to Australia, Abdolhossein Vahaji, notes that the seven "have been unjustly imprisoned" since 2008. The signatories include 16 Senior Counsel and Queen's Counsel as well as senior legal academics, human rights specialists and other leading members of the legal profession. The president of the International Commission of Jurists Australia, John Dowd, QC (pictured), also one of the signatories, delivered a keynote address when the letter was launched at NSW Parliament House last month. The imprisoned leaders were all members of an ad hoc leadership group that oversaw the basic needs of Iranian Baha'is (such as registering births, deaths and marriages). The five men and two women were arrested in raids on their homes in 2008. Their alleged crimes included "spreading corruption on earth" and collaboration with the "tyrannical Quds-occupying regime", which apparently refers to Israel.