Siamak Hanavor and Saeed Etefagh, Baha’i Citizens, Sent to Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz to Serve Their Sentences

Hrana News Agency – Siamak Hanavor and Saeed Etefagh, Baha’i citizens residing in Shiraz, have been sent to Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz to serve their sentences of 31 months and 16 days.

According to Hrana News Agency, the news organ of the human rights activists collective in Iran, on Sunday, August 31, 2022, Siamak Hanavor and Saeed Etefagh were sent to Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz to serve their sentences.

These citizens were sentenced last November by Branch One of the Shiraz Revolutionary Court to 7 months and 16 days in prison on the charge of “propaganda activity against the system” and to 31 months and 16 days in prison on the charge of “membership in groups opposing the system.”

Following confirmation of these sentences by Branch 37 of the Fars Province Court of Appeals, and with the application of Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, 31 months and 16 days in prison is to be enforced as the most severe punishment for each of these Baha’i citizens.

These citizens were arrested on April 6, 2021 by security forces and transferred to solitary confinement cells in law enforcement detention facilities under the supervision of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization and the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Shiraz. These citizens were ultimately released on a temporary basis in May 2021 after posting bail until the end of the legal proceedings.

The hearing on the charges against these citizens took place on October 9, 2021 in this branch.

Baha’i citizens in Iran are deprived of freedoms related to religious beliefs. This systematic deprivation occurs despite Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which state that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to change religion or belief, and the freedom to manifest this religion or belief individually or collectively, both in public and in private.

According to unofficial sources in Iran, there are more than 300,000 Baha’i citizens; however, Iran’s Constitution recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, and does not recognize the Baha’i faith. For this reason, the rights of Baha’is in Iran have been systematically violated over the past years.

Source: Hrana