Watchdog

A court in Iran has sentenced 26 followers of the Baha'i faith to prison terms ranging from two to five years, as well as other measures, on charges of "conspiracy to disrupt internal and external security" in what the religion's leaders say is another sign of the persecution they face.

According to reports received by Radio Farda, the verdict issued by the Revolutionary Court of the southern city of Shiraz is related to a series of arrests of Baha'is in Shiraz between July 2016 and December 2016.

Several unspecified problems in the case had drawn the proceedings out for six years.

Five men and six women were handed five-year prison sentences, and will also be subject to various travel restrictions once they are free.

In addition, nine women and six men received two-year prison sentences, as well as travel restrictions upon release.

The Baha'i International Community has repeatedly rejected the charges, calling them completely "baseless" and prompted solely because of their religious beliefs and activities.

Baha'is -- who number some 300,000 in Iran and have an estimated 5 million followers worldwide -- say they face systematic persecution in Iran, where their faith is not officially recognized in the constitution.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha'i faith a cult and in a religious fatwa issued in 2018 forbade contact, including business dealings, with followers of the faith.

Since the Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979, hundreds of Baha'is have been arrested and jailed for their beliefs. At least 200 have been executed or were arrested and never heard from again.

Thousands more have been banned from receiving higher education or had their property confiscated, while vandals often desecrate Baha'i cemeteries.

Writing and reporting by Ardeshir Tayebi

MOSCOW -- Moscow police have detained dozens of journalists and activists after they were identified using a facial recognition system in the city's metro according to the OVD-Info group, which monitors the arrests of representatives of democratic institutions, rights defenders, and opposition politicians.

According to the group, at least 67 activists and journalists were detained on June 12, which is commemorated as Russia Day, of whom 43 individuals were detained after being identified as potential protesters. They were picked out of the crowds in the Moscow metro by police through the usage of the facial recognition system.

Journalists Pyotr Ivanov, Olga Bazhanova, and Asya Kazantseva, as well as rights activists and participants of previous public actions of protests were among those detained.

They said police told them they were picked up as potential protesters on Russia Day, a national holiday celebrating the then-Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic's declaration of state sovereignty in 1990. Prior to the recent coronavirus pandemic, political opposition and activists traditionally held anti-government protests on Russia Day.

Most of those detained were released hours later.

Kazantseva told the Mediazona website that police demanded she write a statement saying that she went through a "preventive conversation" and "was instructed that persons who had faced administrative arrests in the past cannot enter the metro on the Russia Day."

Activist Arina Yaroslavtseva told OVD-Info that she was detained twice on June 12 in different districts of Moscow. At one police station was fingerprinted while at another she went through what the police called "a preventive conversation." She did not elaborate.

With reporting by Mediazona and OVD-Info