LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- After ten years of imprisonment for his beliefs, Mr.
Saeid Rezaie, one of the seven
members of the former leadership group of the Bahá'ís in
Iran, was released on
Friday.
Mr. Rezaie and his six colleagues were arrested in 2008. They
were part of the ad hoc group known as "the Yaran," or the Friends,
which tended to the basic needs of the Iranian Bahá'í community.
Mr. Rezaie is the fourth member to complete his sentence.
"From prison, Mr. Rezaie will go back to a community that is
still under immense pressure from the government and faces
discrimination and persecution for no other reason than belief in
the Bahá'í Faith," said Ms. Diane
Ala'i, Representative of the Bahá'í International
Community (BIC) to the United Nations in Geneva.
Indeed, Mr. Rezaie's release coincided with the arrest of
seven more Baha'is in Iran,
who have not yet been charged with any crime.
Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Bahá'ís have faced
executions, arrests, torture, imprisonment, and exclusion from
public employment. In recent years, their situation has in many
ways worsened. The economic persecution against them has escalated
to what the BIC has called in an open letter to President Rouhani,
an "economic apartheid against a segment of Iran's population."
Last week, a group of 25 prominent professors, lawyers, and
judges from around the world addressed an open letter to
the head of Iran's High Council
for Human Rights, Mr. Mohammad Javad
Larijani, asking him to end the persecution of the Bahá'ís
in Iran. The letter brings
attention to a newly launched website by the BIC in which
thousands of official documents revealing the state-sponsored
oppression were published for the first time.
For more information about religious persecution and the rights
of the Baha'is in Iran, please
contact the U.S. Baha'i Office of Public Affairs
at 202-833-8990, or visit publicaffairs.bahai.us.
Media Contact:
Danyelle
Simpkins
danyelle@ballantinespr.com
Ballantines PR
Tel: 310.454.3080
http://www.ballantinespr.com/
View original
content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fourth-member-of-bahaii-yaran-group-completes-his-imprisonment-in-iran-300600455.html
SOURCE U.S. Baha’i Office of Public Affairs