Court Date Set for Trial of 26 Baha’i Citizens in Shiraz
Hrana News Agency – The court session to hear charges against 26 Baha’i citizens of Shiraz will be held on Wednesday, May 18, at Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of the city.
According to Hrana News Agency, the news outlet of the Human Rights Activists in Iran group, the date and branch of the court session to hear charges against 26 Baha’i citizens residing in Shiraz has been determined.
The third session of the court hearing charges against Parisa Rouhizadegan, Ismail Rusta, Bahareh Norouzi, Behnam Azizpour, Somayeh Ashnayee, Ramin Shirwani, Razvan Yazdani, Sorosh Yagani Sagadi, Saeed Hasani, Shadi Sadegh Agdam, Shamim Akhlagi, Sohba Farah Bakhsh, Sohba Moslehi, Ohdiyeh Enayati, Farbod Shademan, Farzad Shademan, Lala Salehi, Merzhan Gholampour Saadi, Merjan Gholampour, Maryam Islami Mahdiabad, Mehyar Safidi Miandoab, Nabil Tahzeeb, Nasim Kashani Nezhad, Noshin Zanhary, Varqa Kaviani, and Yekta Fahandzeh Saadi will be held on Wednesday, May 18, 1401, at Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz, presided over by Judge Seyyed Mahmoud Sadati.
The charges against these citizens are described as “propaganda against the system and in favor of groups opposed to the system, managing groups opposed to the system, membership in said groups and propagandistic activity and cooperation with hostile states and relations with hostile states of the Islamic Republic and global arrogance through implementing their programs in the form of Baha’i organizations in Iran.”
The first court session to hear charges against these citizens was previously held on June 16, 2020, and the second session, after addressing objections raised by the prosecutor’s office, was held on October 5, 2020, in this branch. During the first session, the defendants’ lawyers raised objections to the file with the judge. Ultimately, the judge stated that the file should be returned to the prosecutor’s office for further review.
Merjan and Merzhan Gholampour, Farbod and Farzad Shademan, and Parisa Rouhizadegan, Shamim Akhlagi and her husband Sohba Farah Bakhsh, Sohba Moslehi and her husband Ohdiyeh Enayati, Mehyar Safidi and his wife Shadi Agdam, and Varqa Kaviani, Sorosh Yagani and Maryam Islami, and Bahareh Norouzi were arrested by security forces in Shiraz in 2016 and were later temporarily released on bail pending the completion of legal proceedings.
Baha’i citizens in Iran are deprived of freedoms related to religious beliefs. This systematic deprivation occurs despite Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which state that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to change religion or belief, and the freedom to express religion or belief, individually or in association with others, in public or in private.
According to unofficial sources in Iran, there are more than three hundred thousand Baha’is, but Iran’s Constitution only recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, and does not recognize the Baha’i faith. For this reason, Baha’is’ rights in Iran have been systematically violated over the past years.
Source: Hrana
