Source: www.hra-news.org
Translation by Iran Press Watch
HRANA – Samin Maghsoudi, a Baha’i resident of Tehran, has been transferred to Evin Prison to serve her sentence. This Baha’i citizen was sentenced to five years‘ imprisonment by the Tehran Revolutionary Court in May of last year; this year her sentence was upheld in the appeals court.
According to the HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists in Iran, today, Saturday, November 9, 2019, a Baha’i resident of Tehran, Samin Maghsoudi, was sent to Evin prison to serve her sentence.
In an interview with a HRANA Reporter, Ms. Maghsoudi’s defense lawyer, Mohammad Hadi Kaseb, said: “Today Ms. Maghsoudi was sent to Evin prison to serve her five-year sentence, after reporting to the Sentence Execution Branch of Evin Prison today.”
This Baha’i citizen was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in May of 2018 by Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court headed by Judge Moghiseh, under an accusation of “managing the Baha’i Administration”. The verdict was upheld in September of this year by Judge Zargar at Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeals.
The verdict is in connection with a case filed against her in 2018. On 21 October 2017, Samin Maghsoudi, while holding a celebration at her own house for the 200th birthday of Baha’u’llah, the prophet founder of the Baha’i Faith, was arrested by security forces and later released on bail.
A source close to Ms. Maghsoudi’s family told a HRANA Reporter: “Ms. Maghsoudi’s conviction was upheld, while in March of last year, about ten months after the preliminary injunction was issued, she was contacted by the Intelligence Office, and the stress of this call induced heart arrest and caused Ms. Maghsoudi to miscarry her two-month-old fetus. However, despite the psychological and physical pressure resulting from the incident, by upholding the sentence she is also ordered to serve a prison sentence.”
Baha’i citizens in Iran have been deprived of their freedom of religious beliefs. This deprivation has been systematic, even though according to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Treaty on Political and Civic Rights, every individual has a right to their religious belief and to change beliefs. In addition, every human being must be free to express those beliefs, whether in private or in public.
Based on unofficial sources, there are more than three hundred thousand Baha’is residing in Iran, although constitutionally only the religions of Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism are officially recognized. Baha’is have no religious freedom; this is why the rights of Baha’is have been systematically violated.
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