The exile sentence of Ardeshir Fanaeyan, a Baha’i citizen, was carried out

Source: www.hra-news.org

Translation by Iran Press Watch

HRANA – Today, Ardeshir Fanaeyan, a Baha’i citizen from Semnan, was transferred to Khash County in Sistan and Baluchestan Province to begin serving his one-year exile. Mr. Fanaeyan had been released from Semnan Prison in March 2025 after completing his prison sentence.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists in Iran, Mr. Fanaeyan traveled to Khash on Saturday, August 2, 2025, to carry out the remainder of his sentence. A source close to the family confirmed that his wife and two-year-old child have also accompanied him.

Mr. Fanaeyan was released from Semnan Prison on March 19, 2025, after completing a prison term stemming from earlier charges. In November 2019, Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Semnan, presided over by Judge Mohammad-Ali Rostami, sentenced him to 11 years in prison, one year of exile in Khash, and one year of banishment from Semnan. On appeal, the prison sentence was reduced to six years.

He was convicted on charges of “establishing and managing an illegal group inside the country with the intention of disturbing national security” and “collaborating in actions against the regime in favor of opposition groups.”

Mr. Fanaeyan was first arrested on April 30, 2019, by intelligence agents executing a judicial warrant, and was released 75 days later on bail.

His persecution is part of a long-standing pattern: his parents were imprisoned in the 1980s for their Baha’i faith. He himself was born in Semnan Prison in December 1988 and spent the first three months of his life there with his mother. Mr. Fanaeyan also has a prior record of arrest and conviction in 2013.

Over the past decade, Baha’is in Iran have faced systematic security and judicial harassment at levels exceeding those experienced by any other religious minority. Annual reports by the Statistics and Publications Unit of Human Rights Activists in Iran show that in the past three years, an average of 72 percent of all documented violations against religious minorities have targeted Baha’i citizens.