Source: www.hra-news.org
Translation by Iran Press Watch
Hrana News Agency – This Sunday morning, January 1, Nakissa Hajipour, a Baha’i citizen living in Tehran, was arrested at Mashhad Airport and taken to an unknown location.
An informed source told Hrana: “This Baha’i citizen living in Tehran was arrested at Hasheminejad Airport in Mashhad at 6:00 AM while she was returning to Tehran with her husband.”
So far, there is no information about the whereabouts of this citizen.
Mrs. Hajipour along with 4 other Baha’i citizens were previously sentenced to 1 year in prison each by the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad in September 2020, and the Court of Appeal of Khorasan Razavi Province approved the sentence. Mrs. Hajipour was later arrested on Tuesday, April 6, 2021, after appearing in the execution unit of the Mashhad Prosecutor’s Office, and was transferred to Vakilabad prison in Mashhad to serve her sentence.
Mrs. Hajipour was also arrested in 2015.
Baha’i citizens in Iran are deprived of liberties of practicing their religious beliefs. This systematic deprivation of liberty occurs while Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights entitle any individual to freedom of religion and belief and also freedom to express it individually or collectively and in public or in private.
According to unofficial sources, there are more than 300,000 Baha’is in Iran, but Iran’s constitution only recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism and does not recognize the Baha’i faith. For this reason, the rights of Baha’is in Iran have been systematically violated over past years.
Leave a Reply