Five Baha’is arrested in Alborz province to serve prison sentences

Hengaw – Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Five Baha’i adherents, identified as Babak Zeinali, Sahba Taef, Fouad Taefi, Shervin Shabrokh and Ali Bagherkashi, have been taken into custody to begin serving their prison sentences.

According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the five were summoned to the Sentence Enforcement Office in Shahriar on August 31, 2026, where they were taken into custody to begin serving their sentences.

Sources familiar with the case said they were initially expected to be transferred to Great Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafouyeh Prison). However, other sources reported that they had been transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. Hengaw has not been able to independently confirm their current place of detention.

The five Baha’is were previously arrested by Iranian security forces on November 7, 2023, at Zeinali’s home in Mehrshahr, Karaj. They were subsequently sentenced by a Revolutionary Court to one year in prison under Article 500 bis of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code on charges including “propaganda against the state” and “deviant educational and proselytizing activities contrary to or disruptive of the sacred law of Islam.”