Eight-Year Prison Sentence for Four Baha’i Citizens in Shiraz Upheld

The appeals court of Fars Province has sentenced four Baha’i citizens to a total of eight years in prison. Previously, eight other Baha’i citizens in this case were sentenced by the appeals court to 25 years and six months in prison and a monetary fine.

The initial trial of these individuals was held in the first branch of Shiraz’s Revolutionary Court under the presiding judge Seyyed Mahmoud Sadati. This court had previously sentenced each of these prisoners to six years in prison.

Following the announcement of the appeals court ruling on Tuesday, July 31st, a total of 12 Baha’i citizens have now been sentenced by the appeals court to 33 years and six months in prison and a one-million-toman fine in this case.

The appeals court had previously ruled on eight other Baha’is in this case, sentencing them to a combined 25 years and six months in prison and a one-million-toman fine. Nilofar Hakimi was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, Navid Bazmandegan, Bahare Ghaderri, Nura Pourmoradyan, Soodabeh Haghighat, and Elaheh Samiezadeh were sentenced to two years and nine months in prison, and Ehsanollah Mahboob Rah-e Vafa was sentenced to a one-million-toman fine. The six-year prison sentence for Shahrivar Atrianyan was also upheld by the appeals court.

Security forces in Shiraz had arrested these individuals between 2016 and 2019. The defendants were temporarily released on bail following a period of detention until the completion of legal proceedings.

Social and security pressures on Baha’is have increased in recent years. The Baha’i faith is not officially recognized in Iran. Baha’is live under the pressure of arbitrary arrests, harassment, deprivation of education, prohibition of business activity, and desecration of their cemeteries in Iran. In some cases, the bodies of Baha’i citizens have been exhumed from their graves.

Javaid Rehman, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, recently expressed concern in a report regarding 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 officially recognize, and their population of approximately 350,000 in Iran is subjected to severe persecution and harassment.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, more than 200 Baha’is have been executed in Iran for their religious beliefs.

Source: DW