PARIS: Iranian authorities on Saturday stated they’d arrested members of the Bahai minority they accused of getting been energetic in what they known as “riots”, the Tasnim information company reported, after the wave of protests that gripped the nation.
The Bahais, Iran’s largest non-Muslim non secular minority, usually expertise persecution and the Islamic republic has accused its members of being spies linked to Israel.
“A 32-member community of the Bahai espionage cult who have been energetic within the riots and acts of vandalism have been recognized and 12 fundamental brokers have been arrested and 13 have been summoned,” the intelligence ministry stated, quoted by Tasnim.
It stated the community was energetic throughout Iran, together with within the capital Tehran, including that “their fundamental hideout was positioned in Mashhad” within the east.
Iran was rocked by weeks of demonstrations sparked by anger over financial hardship that exploded into the most important protests in opposition to the Islamic republic in additional than three years.
However demonstrations have subsided after the crackdown that rights teams say left 1000’s of individuals useless.
Human Rights Watch stated in 2024 that the “Iranian authorities’ decades-long systematic repression of Bahais… quantities to the crime in opposition to humanity of persecution”.
It’s unclear what number of members of the minority stay in Iran, however their supporters consider there might nonetheless be a number of hundred thousand.
