Faranak Zebihi, a Baha’i citizen, has been sentenced by the Qaemshahr Revolutionary Court, on the charge of “propaganda against the system through the promotion of the Baha’i Faith,” to two years and one day of Ta’zir Imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of social rights.
According to published reports, the sentence was issued under the presidency of Judge Reza Mojazi, and the charge brought in the case relates directly to activities connected with this citizen’s religious belief.
The prosecution and punishment of individuals for the peaceful expression, teaching, or promotion of religious beliefs, beyond constituting an individual criminal case, seriously violates Iran’s international obligations regarding freedom of religion and belief and the principle of non discrimination. Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief and the right to manifest it, whether individually or in community with others, a protection that is not confined to religions formally recognized under a state’s domestic legal system.
The Hana Organization for Human Rights had previously warned, in a special report, of the intensification of security and judicial pressure on Baha’i citizens, and had documented instances of their summoning, detention, home searches, and confiscation of property. The continuation of such treatment, particularly when belief, identity, or peaceful religious activity serves as the basis for criminal prosecution, reflects a troubling trend toward the securitization of freedom of religion and belief and the expansion of discrimination against religious minorities in Iran.