Baha’i woman Roya Sabet arrested to serve prison sentence in Shiraz

Hengaw – Monday, October 27, 2025

Roya Sabet, a Baha’i woman from Shiraz and a long-term resident of the United Arab Emirates, has been arrested to serve a ten-year prison sentence and transferred to Adelabad (Central) Prison in Shiraz.

According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Sabet was detained at her sister’s home in Shiraz and taken to Adelabad Prison to begin serving her sentence. Her arrest took place on Saturday, October 25, 2025.

Sabet had earlier been sentenced by Branch 1 of the Shiraz Revolutionary Court to a total of 25 years in prison, including 20 years on charges of “collaboration and communication with Israeli nationals and institutions and forming and managing a group with the intent to act against national security” and five years on charges of “promoting Baha’i religious beliefs contrary to Islamic Sharia.”

Under Iran’s sentence aggregation law, the court ruled that the most severe of her sentences, ten years of imprisonment, would be enforced.

The Baha’i woman, who had lived in the UAE for 23 years, was previously arrested on February 15, 2024, after being summoned by the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Shiraz, on charges of “propaganda against the regime” and “acting against national security.”

She was released from Adelabad Prison in August 2024 after five months of pre-trial detention upon posting bail.