Two Yazd Baha’is Begin Serving Prison Sentences while another arrested

As reported by HRNA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists in Iran, on Saturday, February 3, 2019, Mehran Bandi Amirabadi and Mehran Eslami Amirabadi, two Baha’is in Yazd, were sent to prison in that city to begin serving their sentences. On January 12, 2019, branch 11 of the appellate court of Yazd province sentenced each of these two citizens to one year in prison.

A source close to the two told HRANA’s reporter: “These two Baha’i citizens began serving their prison sentences although they had not been issued any notification of the start of their imprisonment, but on Thursday, January 31, security agents planned to arrest Mr. Bandi Amirabadi. Therefore, the two turned themselves in to begin serving their sentences”.

After an appeal of the sentence issued by branch 3 of the appellate court, the country’s Supreme Court referred the case to branch 11 of the appellate court of Yazd province – a laterally equivalent court – for sentencing.

In August 2018, Mehran Eslami Amirabadi and Mehran Bandi Amirabadi were arrested and transferred to Yazd prison to serve their sentences. After an appeal against the sentences, and upon confirmation of the appeal by the country’s Supreme Court, they had been temporarily released last month, pending the completion of the inquest.

Last August, these two Baha’is, together with five other Baha’is, were tried by branch 3 of the appellate court of the Yazd province. Subsequently, Mehran Eslami Amirabadi was sentenced to one and a half years in prison and one year of internal exile to Saravan, and Mehran Bandi Amirabadi was also sentenced to one and a half years in prison and one year of internal exile in Divandareh.

The other five Baha’is – Sorour Forughi Mehdi Abadi, Farzad Rouhani Manshadi, Ramin Hozouri Sharafabadi, Mohammad Ali Tadrisi and Ahmad Jafari Naimi – each were given a three year suspended sentence, and Ezzatollah Khorram, the other person accused in the case, was acquitted of the charges.

Farzad Rouhani Manshadi, a Baha’i citizen living in Yazd, was detained by security forces today and transferred to an unknown location. The agents simultaneously searched his house and seized some personal belongings.

According to the HRANA, the Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran, today, Monday, February 28, 2019, Baha’i citizen Farzad Rouhani Manshadi was arrested by security forces and was transferred to an unknown location.

A source close to Mr. Rouhani’s family told HRANA’s reporter: “Mr. Rouhani was apprehended while taking his children to school. After the arrest, security forces searched his house without a warrant and confiscated a number of his personal belongings.”

Farzad Rouhani Manshadi was tried in July of last year by the third branch of the Yazd Appeal Court along with 6 other Baha’i citizens, and was sentenced to 3 years of suspended imprisonment.

This Baha’i citizen was arrested in 2016 by security forces in Yazd, and was released on bail until the end of the trial.