Source: www.hra-news.org
Translation by Iran Press Watch
HRANA News Agency – Behnam Eskandarani, Yalda Firoozian and Ardeshir Fanayan, three Baha’i citizens in Semnan, were arrested by security forces this morning and transferred to an unknown location. At the time of the arrest, the agents seized some of their personal belongings.
According to HRANA. the news agency of Human Rights Activists in Iran, three Baha’i citizens of Semnan, Behnam Eskandarani, Yalda Firoozian and Ardeshir Fanayan, were arrested by agents of the intelligence agency and transferred to an unknown location on Tuesday, April 30, 2019.
At the time of the arrest, the agents also seized some of their personal belongings.
Ardeshir Fanayan, one of the detainees, had been sentenced to 8 months imprisonment in 2013, and was arrested on January 8, 2014, for imprisonment. Despite the abolition of the law that allows arrest of inductees, he was obliged by a judicial order to start serving his military service upon completion of his sentence.
Baha’is in Iran are systematically 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), to both of which Iran is a 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 in private.”
According to unofficial sources in Iran there are more than 300,000 Baha’is living in Iran, but the Iranian constitution recognizes only the religions of Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrian, and does not recognize the Baha’i Faith. This is why in recent years Baha’i rights have been systematically violated in Iran.
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