Mehdi Hajati sent to prison to serve one year sentence
Zohreh Rastegari, the wife of Shiraz City Council member Mehdi Hajati, announced on her personal Twitter account on Sunday, June 1, 2019, that he had been imprisoned to serve a one-year prison sentence. Zohreh Rastegari tweeted: “An hour ago, officers arrived at our house and transferred my husband #Mehdi_Hajati to prison to serve a one-year prison sentence. Yesterday, we received a text message stating that the sentence had been issued, and it was carried out today.”
Mehdi Hajati, a member of the Shirza City Council and head of the council’s Citizens’ Rights Commission, was arrested by security forces on Thursday, October 25, 2018, two days after he tweeted in defense of two Baha’i citizens arrested in Shiraz. He was imprisoned for ten days and has not been allowed to enter the city council or continue his professional activities since his release.
Mehdi Hajati On October 22, 2018, he posted a tweet on his Twitter account with the following content : "I have spent the past ten days knocking on every door to release two detained Baha'i friends, and I have not achieved any results. Our generation is obligated to spare no effort in reforming judicial procedures and other matters that endanger social justice as long as it stands against foreign enemies."
It is not uncommon for a country official to publicly defend the rights of Baha'is. He was arrested two days after publishing this tweet. The Fars news agency, citing " an informed source ," reported on the day of Mehdi Hajati's arrest that " Hajati is accused of supporting the errant Baha'i sect. "
