Arrest of at Least Five Baha’i Citizens at the Provincial Governor’s Office of Mazandaran

Source: BahaiNews¹

Translation by Iran Press Watch

As reported by the BahaiNews, on the morning of 8 November 2016 at least five Baha’i citizens were arrested at the Mazandaran’s Provincial Governor’s Office, and a large number of Baha’i citizens were harshly treated in front of that office.

According to a report by BahaiNews, as conveyed by informed sources, a minimum of five Baha’i citizens who had attended a day of “public interaction with the officials” regarding the sealing of Baha’i business premises in Mazandaran Province were arrested by security agents. An informed source told the BahaiNews reporter: “After a number of Baha’is were permitted to enter the Provincial Governor’s Office, intelligence agents immediately arrested those who were inside the building. Moreover, those who were outside the door were videotaped and attacked by security agents.”

This informed source added: “The agents were shouting that these people receive instructions from Israel, and that they had come there to assemble, start a riot and set fire to the banks. They kept on shouting this. With respect to those who had been arrested, they said, ‘We have also arrested your leaders’ ‒ meaning those who had been arrested inside the building.”

According to this informed source, the people who had come to this public meeting with the officials were Baha’is from the city of Qaemshahr.

Based on the latest news received by BahaiNews, the names of some of those arrested are: Behnam Mirzai, Nima Nokhah, Arsham Golpour, Suhayl Haghdoust and Shahrouz Zamani.

A minimum of 33 business premises of Baha’i citizens have been sealed by the agents of the Office of Public Places because Baha’is close their businesses during Baha’i religious holidays ‒ in this case on November 2 ^nd and 3^rd 2016.
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1. BahaiNews is an independent non-Baha’i initiative, and is not affiliated with any Baha’i institutions.