Iran’s Baha’is face harshest crackdown in decades

An Iranian revolutionary court has sentenced two young members of the banned Baha’i faith to long prison terms in connection with January’s anti-government protests, the Baha’i International Community (BIC) said on Monday.

Peyvand Naimi, 30, received twelve and a half years, and his cousin Borna Naimi, 29, eight years, from a revolutionary court in the southeastern city of Kerman.

Arrested earlier this year, the two men were accused of undermining national security and taking part in the killing of three members of the Basij, a paramilitary force linked to the Revolutionary Guards. Their supporters say the charges are baseless. According to the BIC, both were tortured, including through mock executions, and forced to make false confessions, in writing and on television.

“It is outrageous that these two completely innocent people have been sentenced to such long prison terms,” without “any evidence,” said Simin Fahandej, the BIC’s representative to the UN in Geneva. Peyvand Naimi had received public support in May from several American actors, including Mark Ruffalo.

Dozens of Baha’is have been arrested since the January protests, according to community representatives, who describe one of the harshest crackdowns since the early years of the Islamic Revolution.

Three other Baha’is from Kerman were recently sentenced to eight years each, according to the rights group HRANA. One of them, Venus Hosseininejad, appeared in an April post by President Donald Trump featuring eight women he said faced execution.

The Baha’i faith, founded in Iran in the mid-19th century, is the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. 

It is not recognized by the constitution and, unlike Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, has no representation in parliament. Baha’is are regularly accused of spying for Israel, because their spiritual center is in Haifa. The center was established there long before the creation of the State of Israel.