Navid Moallemi Arrested and Transferred to Prison

March 23, 2017 , editor , 1 Comment

Translation by Iran Press Watch

Based on a BahaiNews report, Navid Moallemi, a Baha’i resident of Minudasht in Golestan Province, was arrested and transferred to prison on Saturday, 12 March 2017 in front of his place of business.

Based on this report, Navid Moallemi, together with his wife, Camelia Bidelian, had previously been sentenced to one year and six-months imprisonment as part of a case named “Baha’is Arrested in Golestan Province.”

According to informed sources: “Navid Moallemi was arrested by security agents outside his business. The security agents went to his home to arrest his wife, Mrs. Camelia Bidelian. However, Mrs. Bidelian has not been arrested, as she was not home.”

This informed source said: “The agents mentioned that Navid Moallemi has been transferred to prison merely to answer some questions.”

Another informed source has conveyed that within the past few days, security agents also went to the home of one of the other Baha’is who has been sentenced to imprisonment, but he has not been arrested, since he was not home.

Based on this report, security agents in this province are eager to implement the prison terms of those Baha’i citizens who had previously been sentenced by the court of appeals.

During the original court hearing, 22 Baha’i citizens of Golestan Province were sentenced to a total of 193-years of imprisonment. Following their hearings at the court of appeals, it was announced that Farah Tebyanian, Pouneh Sanai, Mona Amri Hesari, Behnam Hasani, Parisa Shahidi, Mojdeh Zohouri, Parivash Shojai, Hana Aghighian (from Gorgan), Shohreh Samimi (from Minudasht), Bita Hedayati, Vesagh Sanai and Hana Koushkbaghi (from Gonabad Kavous) were each sentenced to one year and nine months of imprisonment. Also, Roufia Pakzadan, Soudabeh Mehdi Nejad, Mitra Nouri, Shiva Rohani, Houshmand Dehghan, Mayam Dehghan, Nazy Tahghighi (from Gorgan), Camelia Bidelian and Navid Moallemi (from Minudasht) were each sentenced to one year and six months of imprisonment. In additional, the one year and nine month prison sentence of Tina Mohebati was overturned, and she was sentenced to pay a three-million tuman (approx US$925) fine. The sentencing by the court of appeals of Shahnam Jazbani (from Minudasht) and Shayda Ghoddousi (from Gorgan), who were each sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment, has yet not been communicated to them.

These Baha’i citizens were collectively arrested previously, on 17 October 2012, and faced heavy sentences of 11, 9 and 6 years of imprisonment.

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