Baha’i Leader Says People Of Iran Never Accepted Espionage Accusations

RFL/RE – Saeid Rezaie, one of the seven members of the former leadership group of the Baha’is, who has been recently freed after being ten years behind bars, says that people of Iran never accepted the claim that Baha’i leaders are involved in espionage against their homeland.

Rezaie who was arrested in 2008 was freed from prison February 16 after completing a ten-year sentence for espionage, charges he denies.

The Baha’i, like some other religious minorities in the Islamic Republic, are persecuted for their beliefs and subjected to harassment and wrongful imprisonment, according to rights groups.

“Mr. Rezaie and six of his colleagues were arrested in 2008 after an early-morning raid on their homes,” the Baha’i International Community (BIC) said in a statement. “They were part of the ad hoc group known as “the Yaran” (the Friends) which tended to the basic spiritual and material needs of the Iranian Baha’i community. The group was formed with the knowledge and tacit approval of authorities after formal Baha’i institutions were declared illegal in Iran in the 1980s. Mr. Rezaie is the fourth individual from among the former Yaran to be released.”

The Yaran were accused by Iranian authorities of “espionage, sacrilege, propaganda against the establishment, and spreading corruption on Earth.”