Eight-year prison sentences for four Baha'i citizens in Shiraz finalized
The Fars Provincial Court of Appeal sentenced four Baha’i citizens to a total of eight years in prison. Previously, eight other Baha’i citizens had been sentenced to 25 years and six months in prison and fined by the Court of Appeal in this case.
The trial of these individuals was held in Branch 1 of the Shiraz Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Seyyed Mahmoud Sadati. The court had previously sentenced each of these prisoners to six years of penal servitude.
With the announcement of the verdict of the Court of Appeals against four Baha'i citizens yesterday, Tuesday, July 21, 12 Baha'i citizens have been sentenced by the Court of Appeals to a total of 33 years and six months in prison and a fine of one million Tomans in this case.
The Court of Appeal had previously sentenced eight other Baha’is in the case to a total of 25 years and six months in prison and a fine of one million tomans. Niloufar Hakimi was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, Navid Bazmandegan, Bahareh Ghaderi, Noura Pourmoradian, Sudabeh Haghighat, Elahe Samizadeh to two years and nine months in prison, and Ehsanollah Mahboob Rahvafa was sentenced to one million tomans in fine. The six-year prison sentence for Shahriar Atrian was also upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Security forces in Shiraz had arrested these individuals between 2016 and 2019, and after some time, the defendants were temporarily released on bail until the end of the trial.
Social and security pressures on Baha'is have increased in recent years. The Baha'i faith is not recognized in Iran. Baha'is live under the pressure of arbitrary arrests, harassment, deprivation of education, prohibition of business, and destruction of their cemeteries in Iran. In some cases, the bodies of Baha'i citizens have even been exhumed.
Javed Rehman, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, recently expressed concern in a report about the situation of Baha'is and other ethnic and religious minorities.
The UN rapporteur emphasized that Baha'is are the largest non-Muslim minority that the Islamic Republic does not recognize and that their population of approximately 350,000 in Iran is severely persecuted.
Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, more than 200 Baha'is have been executed in Iran for their religious beliefs.
Source: DW
