At Least 12 Bahai Citizens Arrested in Two Iranian Cities
At least 12 Bahai citizens were arrested in Shiraz and Mashhad. Bahai citizens in Shiraz were apprehended by officers from the Information Bureau and transferred to one of this security agency’s detention facilities in the city. There is no information about their fate.
Hrana News Agency, the news organ of the Iranian human rights activists collective, reported that on Tuesday evening, April 17 (April 6), Said Etehad, Ghasem Massoumi, Siamak Honarvar, Sorush Abadi, Sedighe Aghdassi, and Aliyeh Forutan, Bahai citizens residing in Shiraz, were arrested in their homes by Information Bureau officers and transferred to one of this security agency’s detention facilities in Shiraz.
Information Bureau officers conducted searches of these citizens’ homes during the arrests and confiscated their books and electronic devices, taking them away.
Hrana suggests in its report that the number of arrested Bahai individuals in Shiraz and other parts of the country may exceed 12 people.
Bahrouz Farzandi Ardakani, another Bahai citizen, was also arrested by security forces in Shiraz a few hours after these arrests and transferred to an unknown location. Mr. Farzandi had previously in 2018 been deprived of obtaining an academic degree due to his religious beliefs and with the intervention of university security, under the pretext of a missing file.
Bahrouz Farzandi Ardakani is a 25 percent disabled war veteran who spent more than two years and two months in captivity under Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War.
Four Bahai Citizens Transferred to Vakil-Abad Prison
According to Hrana’s report, Nika Pakzadan, Sanaz Ishaghi, Nikisa Hajipour, and Naghmeh Zabihi, four Bahai citizens residing in Mashhad, were also arrested on Tuesday, April 17, after appearing at the enforcement unit of the city’s prosecutor’s office and transferred to Vakil-Abad Prison in Mashhad to serve their sentences.
These citizens were each sentenced to one year of imprisonment by the Mashhad Revolutionary Court in March of last year, and this sentence was upheld by the appellate court of Razavi Khorasan Province.
These four Bahai citizens were previously arrested by security officers in Mashhad in November 2015.
The Islamic Republic systematically suppresses Iran’s Bahai community, one of the country’s largest religious minorities, and has deprived them of their most fundamental rights.
Iran’s Constitution does not recognize the Bahai faith, and Bahais do not enjoy the official rights of a religious minority. They are banned from any activity in the public sphere and are deprived of the right to education in universities and employment in government or government-affiliated institutions.
Source: DW
