Court Session for the Charges Against Payam Vali, a Bahá'í Citizen, Held at the Revolutionary Court of Karaj

The court session regarding the charges against Payam Vali, a Bahá'í citizen imprisoned in Gohardasht Prison, was held on Saturday, June 9, in the third branch of the Revolutionary Court of Karaj, presided over by Judge Narimani. According to the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, Hrana, Mr. Vali defended himself in this court session regarding the charge of 'spreading falsehoods' that was opened against him during his imprisonment. This Bahá'í citizen residing in Karaj was arrested on September 24, 2022, when security forces raided his home and was subsequently transferred to Gohardasht Prison in Karaj. In Esfand of the same year, based on charges such as 'collaborating with hostile governments', 'inciting or provoking people to war and mutual slaughter', and 'propaganda against the regime', he was sentenced to 16 years in prison by the first branch of the Revolutionary Court of Alborz Province, presided over by Judge Assef Hosseini, which was later reduced to 9 years and 9 months by the Alborz Provincial Court of Appeals in Ordibehesht of the following year. Bahá'í citizens in Iran have systematically faced execution, widespread social and political discrimination, and illegal actions including arbitrary arrests and desecration of their cemeteries since the Islamic Revolution of February 1979. The repression of Bahá'ís by the Islamic Republic has always been accompanied by international protests. Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, expressed serious concern in his recent report on March 18, 2024, about the 'continuation of harassment and arbitrary arrests of members of the Bahá'í community'. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has also expressed concern over the intensification of pressure on religious minorities in Iran and the Islamic Republic's campaign to arrest Bahá'ís. According to this commission's report, at least around 200 individuals are imprisoned in the Islamic Republic for religious or belief-related reasons. The destruction of Bahá'í rice fields in Ahmadabad village of Mazandaran by agents of the Islamic Republic, the arrest of a Bahá'í citizen in Ahvaz, and the closure of a business belonging to another Bahá'í citizen in Sari, violations of Bahá'í rights in Iran; attacks on cemeteries and the removal of an artist from a concert due to religious beliefs, seventy-five years of imprisonment for fifteen Bahá'í women in Isfahan; charge: educational and promotional activities, Yekta Fahendaj, a Bahá'í citizen, was released from prison on bail.