The disturbing case of ‘membership in the deviated sect’

Nov 24, 2017 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
We recently learned that six Baha’i citizens from Iran were sentenced to a combined total of eighteen years imprisonment, on charges of membership in the Baha’i Community.
We are informed that, all six of these individuals are residents of Sistan and Baluchestan province in Iran. They were interrogated by the Ministry of Intelligence agents in April 2017 in Zahedan, and a case against them was developed with charges of acting against national security through ‘membership in Baha’i Community, which was simply referred to as ‘membership in the deviated sect’ in the text of the verdict.
Their identities have been reported as Houshang Mokhtari (of Saravan); Bijan Eslami Mehdiabadi (of Khash); Ali Mohammad Anvari Aliabadi (of Iranshahr); Bahador Kamjoo, Roshan Baroghi, and Fahimeh Eshagh Noorabadi .
The trial of these individuals was held some time ago, and their sentences were issued on the basis of the summons handed down on Thursday, November 16th, by Branch three of the Revolutionary Court of Zahedan, chaired by Judge Mohammad Reza Sardi.
According to the sentence notification, each received a sentenced of three years.
These Baha’is have categorically rejected the charges of acting against the national security of the country, in all the stages of interrogation and prosecution, and simply called themselves citizens who are being persecuted due to their religious beliefs. It is their intention to appeal their sentences within the next twenty days, when the moratorium is set.
It is of note that some of them have had their businesses sealed due to their religious beliefs.
Bahá’ís as well as the United Nations, Amnesty International, the European Union, the United States, and peer-reviewed academic literature have stated that the members of the Bahá’í community in Iran have been subjected to unwarranted arrests, false imprisonment, beatings, torture, unjustified executions, confiscation and destruction of property owned by individuals, and the Bahá’í community, denial of employment, denial of government benefits, denial of civil rights and liberties, and denial of access to higher education.
Rooplall Dudhnath

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