Iran drew international condemnation in 2008 for arresting leaders of the Baha’i faith, which has no clergy. The religion was founded in Iran in 19th Century and is anathema to the nation’s Islamic clerical regime.
The seven Baha’is, who comprised a committee that was the administrative center of the faith, were each given 20 years in prison. The sentences were later lowered to 10 years, although the reduction was made known verbally and no official statement has yet been issued.
Iraj Kamalabadi, whose sister Fariba Kamalabadi is among the seven, said the Baha’i leaders were transferred last year to Gohardasht prison where violent criminals stay in lice-infested cells next to overflowing sewers.
“I don’t think that there is any light at the end of the tunnel at this point of time,” Kamalabadi said in a meeting with the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
“There condition continues to deteriorate and there is no improvement so far that we have seen,” he said.
Kamal Khanjani, the brother of jailed 77-year-old Baha’i leader Jamaloddin Khanjani, said that five prisoners were crammed into each cell measuring three by five meters (10 by 16 feet).
Khanjani said he was allowed to speak by telephone once with his brother and, “because of his age and the condition of his prison, I knew his health was deteriorating.”
“But when he was talking to me, his voice was wonderful and strong,” Khanjani said.