Source: www.hra-news.org
Translation by Iran Press Watch
HRANA News Agency – Mehran Bandi Amirabadi, a Baha’i citizen residing in Yazd, has been arrested by security forces.
According to HRANA, the human rights activists News Agency in Iran, on August 7, 2018, Baha’i citizen Mehran Bandi Amirabadi was taken into custody by security forces in Yazd.
A source close to Mr. Amirabadi confirmed the arrest, telling the reporter, “this afternoon, August 7, security forces arrested Mehran Bandi Amirabadi, a Baha’i resident in Yazd, at his workplace.”
Mr. Amirabadi, along with six other Baha’i citizens, had been tried by the third branch of the Yazd Appeal Court. The Court sentenced Mr. Amirabadi to one-and-a-half years in prison and one year of exile to Divandareh. However, Mr. Amirabadi had not yet received the summons to report to the authorities to begin his sentence, so it is unknown why he was taken into custody on August 7th.
Baha’i citizens in Iran are deprived of freedoms related to religious beliefs. This systematic deprivation is in direct contradiction to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), both of which Iran is signatory, “all persons have the right to religious freedom, the right to change their religion or belief, and the freedom to express their belief individually or collectively in public or private.”
Based on unofficial sources, it is believed there are over 300,000 Baha’is currently living in Iran. Iran’s Constitution only recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, and does not recognize the Baha’i Faith as a religion. For this reason, the Rights of the Baha’is in Iran has been systematically violated continuously during the past few years.
August 13, 2018 5:58 am
Yazd is a city well know by Baha’is around the world for it’s two histories: a history of repressive mobs supported by violent clerics as long ago as a hundred and seventy years, and a history of staunch and fearless believers in the dawning of the new age who have sacrificed their lives and property to affirm their faith. The great irony of these two histories is that the new age is certainly here when, on August 7th, an innocent Baha’i, Mehran Bandi Amirabadi is arrested in Yazd, and days later the entire world knows of his arrest. More than this, what proof is needed that the day of promise has ended and the day of fulfillment has arrived? Mr. Amirabadi, alone, would be enough to illuminate the city of Yazd for future historians, but he is preceded by martyrs who have already secured for posterity the luminance of Yazd before the eyes of the world.