Iran: two Baha’i women sentenced to a second decade in prison

In Iran, two Baha’i women, Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, after spending 10 years in prison, have been sentenced to a second 10-year imprisonment. The two Iranian Baha’i women were arrested on 31 July – for the second time – at the start of a fresh crackdown against Iran’s Baha’is. According to Geneva based  Baha’i International Community, (BIA)more than 320 Baha’is have been affected by individual acts of persecution since the arrest of Mahvash and Fariba. The latest jail sentence was handed down after a one-hour trial on 21 November – an hour which was mostly spent with the judge insulting and humiliating the defendants,said BAI.

Simin Fahandej, Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations, in a statement said that Mahvash and Fariba are wives, mothers and grandmothers to families who have already been forced to endure their absence for 10 brutal years.Instead of expressing regret to these families for the unjust imprisonment they have already suffered, the Iranian government is unbelievably and inexplicably repeating the same cruelty for a second time, he said.