2LT International News

DOHA, Qatar: The head of Qatar’s small Baha’i community has been sentenced to five years in prison for social media posts authorities claim “cast doubt on the foundations of the Islamic religion,” according to court documents obtained by the Baha’i International Community (BIC).

A three-judge panel of Qatar’s Supreme Judiciary Council delivered the verdict on August 13 against Remy Rowhani, 71, who has been in detention since April. The documents show that the court rejected a defense plea for leniency, citing Rowhani’s heart condition.

Saba Haddad, the BIC’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, condemned the ruling as “a serious breach and grave violation of the right to freedom of religion or belief” and “an attack on Remy Rowhani and the Baha’i community in Qatar.” In a statement on X, the organization urged the international community to press Qatar to release Rowhani immediately and comply with international law.

The Baha’i faith, founded in the 1860s by Persian nobleman Baha’u’llah, teaches that all religions are progressive revelations of God’s will, culminating in the unity of all people and faiths. While accepted in many countries, Baha’is in parts of the Middle East face persistent repression.

Human rights advocates say persecution is most severe in Iran, where the faith is banned. They accuse Tehran of promoting anti-Baha’i policies beyond its borders, including in Yemen, where Iran supports the Houthis, and in Qatar, which shares the world’s largest natural gas field with Iran.

“The sheer arsenal the Iranian government has expended to crush the Baha’is in every avenue of life has been astronomical,” said Nazila Ghanea, a University of Oxford law professor and U.N. Special Rapporteur on religious freedom. “It has also extended its reach, time and again, beyond the border of Iran.”

Advocates say anti-Baha’i discrimination in the region includes deportations, family separations, denial of marriage licenses, exclusion from public schools, and restrictions on burial rights.

Rowhani’s daughter, Noora, who lives in Australia with her husband and young daughter, said she last spoke to her father in a short phone call before his April arrest.