IRAN: Human Rights Without Frontiers urges Iran to release 13 Ahmadis detained for 8 weeks
HRWF (10.02.2023) – On 15 December 2022, 15 Iranian Ahmadis were arrested and taken to the notorious Evin Prison because of their religious beliefs:
Six of them are from Tehran: Mohammadreza Shekariyanasl, Saeed Goodarzi, Hamidreza Yousefi, Amir Mahdi Behrouz, Mohammad Amin Noori, Arman Feidh-Abadi.
Five are from Gorgan: Alireza Akbari Erzati, his wife Maryam Naghshbandi and their two children Mohammed Hassan and Mohammed Hussein, and Owais Akbari Erzati.
The four others from other cities: Ghasem Yousefi Rameneti from Babol, Mohammad Hashem Bazrafshan from Shiraz, Saba Sedaqat from Tabriz, Farzan Faraji Zadeh, from Mashhad.
A number of them had unsuccessfully tried to flee the country on 8 December.
Hamidreza Yousefi was released on 24 January and Ghasem Yousefi Rameneti on 30 January.
As of 10 February, 13 Ahmadis were in pretrial detention, waiting for their case to be examined by the Special Clerical Court in Tehran.
During their detention, they were pressured to sign papers by which they would recant their faith and defame their religion.
Two of the 15 men had already been previously jailed because of their faith in the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, as they call themselves in Iran.
Three prisoners are minors and two are women.
Human Rights without Frontiers is concerned about the safety and the life of members of this religious group labelled “heretics” and “infidels” in Iran.
Human Rights without Frontiers urges the Iranian authorities to release all the Ahmadis arrested on 15 December and to drop all the charges related to their beliefs.