Bahai Citizen Teacher Sentenced to Five Years in Prison in Tehran
“Negin Tadiresi,” a Bahai citizen in Tehran, has been sentenced to five years in prison by a primary court.
Negin Tadiresi was sentenced on Wednesday, June 19, by the primary court in Tehran to five years in prison on charges of “paying tuition for a language class to an Afghan citizen, providing psychological counseling, and keeping notes in her personal office for teaching others.”
This Bahai citizen posted a note on her personal Instagram page, referring to the notification of a five-year prison sentence to her lawyer, while also referencing the charges against her mentioned in the court ruling. The charges listed in the ruling include “paying tuition for a language class to an Afghan national, providing behavioral, sexual, and economic psychological counseling, as well as writing in her personal office that people in this area need education.”
Negin Tadiresi was arrested by security forces on November 25, 2017, and on December 1 of the same year, after completing the interrogation period and finalizing her file, she was released pending bail until the completion of legal proceedings.
On Saturday, June 15, a sentence totaling 36 months in prison for six Bahai citizens residing in Tabriz named “Kheirollah Bakhshi,” “Monika Alizadeh,” “Kambiaz Mithaghi,” “Shabnam Isa Khani,” “Farzad Bahadari,” and “Shahryar Khoda Panah,” who had previously been tried by Judge “Rahim Hamelbor,” head of the first branch of the Revolutionary Court, was announced to them.
The US State Department’s Special Adviser on Religious Minorities in the Middle East, South and Central Asia criticized the continued persecution of minorities in Iran and called on the Islamic Republic to immediately release all prisoners of conscience and respect freedom of religion.
Mr. Knox Thames stated on Tuesday, May 1, at a session of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in Washington: “The Iranian regime suppresses its Bahai citizens to a degree incomparable to the treatment of this minority anywhere in the world. According to statistics, as recently as two months ago, seventy Bahais remain imprisoned in Iranian prisons solely for being Bahai. The US State Department continuously documents these issues. That is, continuous verbal attacks against Bahais, closing their businesses, and preventing them from accessing basic services.”
Source: Voice of America
