The Khorasan Razavi Court of Appeal has confirmed an eight-year prison sentence handed down against Sirus Zabihi Moghadam, a 63-year-old Bahai citizen residing in Mashhad.
The initial ruling was issued by the Mashhad Revolutionary Court on November 24 last year.
According to the verdict, Zabihi was sentenced to seven years in prison for "forming and being a member of opposition groups [accused of] forming Baha'i organizations with the intention of disrupting national security."
He was also sentenced to an additional year for "propaganda against the system."
Zabihi will serve the harsher sentence of seven years, as stipulated by Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, which mandates applying the most severe punishment in cases involving multiple charges. He has 10 days to present himself to the authorities to begin his prison term.
Zabihi was arrested at his home in Mashhad on September 24, 2023 and spent 73 days in detention before being released on bail. He has a history of arrests and imprisonment related to his Baha'i faith dating back to the 1980s and 1990s.
The government has intensified its crackdown on members of the Baha'i faith, imprisoning dozens of them on spurious charges over the past year, denying them access to higher education and livelihoods, and confiscating or destroying their personal properties.
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