SHIRAZ, Iran (AP) — Ending a monthslong closed trial, a judge convicted 10 Iranian Jews of spying for Israel and sentenced them to prison terms of four to 13 years, drawing condemnation from Israel and President Clinton.
Three other Jewish defendants were acquitted of the same charges.
Two Muslim accomplices — identified for the first time as Ali Akbar Safaie and Mehrab Yusefi — were given more lenient jail terms of only two years each, according to Hossein Ali Amiri, the provincial judiciary chief. Two other Muslims were acquitted.
Relatives of the 13 Jews — who arrived at the courthouse in Shiraz on foot because of the Jewish Sabbath — howled in anguish when the sentences became known. One family member fainted.
"None of these verdicts and sentences are final and all can be appealed," said Esmail Naseri, the defense lawyer. "We are relieved that there were no death sentences. I urge family members of the defendants to remain calm."
Maurice Motamed, the single Jewish representative in Iran's 290-seat parliament, said the verdicts and sentences "have seriously affected the community."
"When I talked with many of the Jews in Shiraz, I clearly could see a wave of immigration coming. I'm sorry for this because we are a religious people who love our country and would like to live here," said Motamed as he met with members of the community at the main synagogue in Shiraz, 550 miles south of the capital, Tehran.
In Israel, officials protested the verdicts and sentences and denied the men ever worked for the Jewish state. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak urged the international community pressure Iran to release the 10 Jews.
"Iran cannot be accepted as a member of the international community as long as Jewish prisoners are rotting away in prison, when they have done no wrong," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Aviv Shiron said. "Israel will not rest until all the prisoners are released."
In Washington, Clinton said he was deeply concerned by the convictions and noted that the United States Human Rights Commission has denounced the judicial process by which the 13 Iranian Jews were tried as "seriously flawed."
"We have raised our concerns time and again, when the Iranian government has treated intellectuals, journalists, Muslim clerics and members of the Baha'i community with the same fundamental unfairness," Clinton said. "We are deeply disappointed that the Iranian government has again failed to act as a society based on the rule of law, to which the Iranian people aspire."
Calling the trial a disappointment, the French Foreign Ministry said the European Union hoped the appeals court would reconsider the sentences.
The charges on which the defendants were convicted included "cooperating with a hostile government, membership in an illegal (spy) ring and recruitment of new agents," Naseri said.
In all, eight defendants had confessed and pleaded guilty, four had pleaded innocent, and one acknowledged passing information but maintained his action did not constitute espionage. Most of the accused were from Shiraz, home to 6,000 of Iran's Jews.
Dani Tefilin, a shoe salesman, and Asher Zadmehr, a university language professor, both received 13-year sentences, Naseri said. Ramin Nematizadeh, a shoe clerk, received the shortest jail term, Naseri said.
Of the other seven, civil servant Nasser Levihaim was sentenced to 11 years; store clerk Ramin Farzam, 10; shopkeeper Javid Bent-Yacoub, nine; shopkeeper Farhad Seleh, eight; religion teacher Shahrokh Paknahad, eight; religion teacher Farzad Kashi, eight; and Faramarz Kashi, five.
Three others — Tefilin's brother Omid, Navid Balazadeh and Nejatollah Brukhimnejad — were acquitted, Naseri said. The three had been out on bail since February.
The case has attracted international scrutiny, with critics questioning whether the accused could be fairly tried in a process in which there was no jury, in which the judge also acted as prosecutor, and from which observers were banned.
Questions about fairness increased when state television broadcast confessions from two of the defendants. Defense lawyers said they were not given a chance to consult with their clients before the confessions, which came after months in jail.
"Clearly the result comes as little surprise in a show trial of this kind. Sadly, guilty verdicts were expected," said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, reached at his home in New York.
Anticipating prison terms for the defendants, Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said Friday that the Iranian president would face protests on foreign trips as a result of the trial.
The trial of the Jews in courts controlled by his conservative rivals could set back reform-minded Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's attempts to refashion his country's image.
Iranian Jews are generally allowed to practice their religion freely, but like all Iranians are forbidden any contact with Israel.
At its height, Iran's Jewish community numbered about 100,000 and was still around 80,000 just before Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Now there are about 25,000 Jews, the largest community in the Middle East outside Israel.