Enayatollah Naimi: 15-Year Sentence for Being a Baha’i

The recent wave of sentencing Baha’is to heavy prison terms in Iran continues and on Saturday, May 13,the Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced Enayatollah Naimi to 15 years in prison. Naimi was also finedand deprived of his civil rights, according to a report by the Human Rights Activists News Agency(HRANA).

Judge Morteza Barati, the presiding judge of Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court, sentenced Naimito 10 years in prison for “organizing a group or association aimed at undermining national security” andto five years in prison for “propaganda against the regime”. If the verdict is upheld by the appeals court,Naimi must serve the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The court also sentenced him to a fine of50 million tomans and deprived him of his civil rights for 15 years.

Enayatollah Naimi’s brother, Afif, was a member of an informal Baha’i leadership group called the“Yaran” or “Friends” of Iran. The group was disbanded by default in 2008 when its seven members werearrested and jailed for a decade. Naimi was accused of “connections with Baha’i organizations in Israel”in the charges against him.

Naimi was arrested on September 28, 2022, at his home in Isfahan and was later released on bail. Duringhis arrest, security agents searched his residence, workplace and his garden in the suburbs of Isfahanand confiscated personal belongings including his mobile phone and laptop computer.

Afif Naimi, meanwhile, who lives in Karaj, near Tehran, was arrested on April 29, 2023, while attending afamily gathering and was only allowed a brief phone call to his family who otherwise have no news ofhim.