According to the Tasnim news agency, Iranian officials announced on Saturday that they had detained Bahai minority members who they claimed were involved in “riots” following the nation’s wave of protests.
Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, the Bahais, are frequently persecuted, and the Islamic regime has accused its members of being Israeli spies.
“A 32-member network of the Bahai espionage cult who were active in the riots and acts of vandalism were identified and 12 main agents were arrested and 13 were summoned,” the intelligence ministry said, quoted by Tasnim.
It stated that “their main hideout was located in Mashhad” in the east and that the network was operating throughout Iran, including in Tehran, the country’s capital.
The largest protests against the Islamic republic in over three years erupted during weeks of protests in Iran, which were spurred by resentment over economic hardship.
However, following the crackdown that rights organizations claim killed thousands of people, protests have decreased.
The “decades-long systematic repression of Bahais… amounts to the crime against humanity of persecution,” according to Human Rights Watch in 2024.
It is unclear how many members of the minority remain in Iran, but their supporters believe there could still be several hundred thousand.
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