ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced a Baha'i photojournalist to 26 years in prison on Wednesday on three separate charges amounting to anti-state espionage, amid a wider escalating crackdown of Iran’s minorities.
Artin Ghazanfari, a photojournalist and member of Iran's Baha’i minority was handed a 26-year sentence on Monday for charges relating to his arrest eight and a half months ago, the US-based Human Right Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on Wednesday.
Judge Abolghasem Salavati of Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Ghazanfari to twenty years for “media-related activities,” five years for “assembly and collusion against national security,” and one year for "propaganda against the regime.”
Ghazanfari was arrested during Tehran’s crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests that began in December 2025 following economic pressure and calls for an end to clerical rule. He has been held in the Greater Tehran Prison since January 19.
The arrest reflects an increase in Tehran’s persecution of both its ethnic and religious minorities since January’s crackdown and the beginning of the US-Israeli war with Iran in February.
Ghazanfari’s first charge, “media-related activities,” was doubled from the expected ten years in prison as Salavati invoked the “Law on Intensifying Punishment for Espionage.”
Salavati has also reportedly denied requests from the prison’s medical staff to move Ghazanfari to more equipped facilities on account of his several medical conditions.
Salavati presides over the branch of Tehran’s revolutionary court, a special court designated to handle cases that are “crimes against the revolution” such as espionage and blasphemy.
Sanctioned by the US, UK and the EU over the past decade for his excessively harsh punishment against political prisoners,Salavati’s use of the death penalty has earned him the colloquial moniker, “Judge of Death.”
As both a journalist and a member of Iran’s Baha’i faith, Ghazanfari’s sentence reflects an increasingly oppressive state attitude toward identity outside Tehran’s prescriptions.
Baha’is are Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority and face “what amounts to crimes against humanity” says Human Rights Watch (HRW).
HRW further notes that “there is virtually not a single aspect of the lives of Baha’is in Iran that has not been affected by these egregious violations and crimes under international law.”
Rather than a separate religion, Tehran considers Baha’i faith as an apostasy from Islam.
Resultingly, Baha’is face arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and torture, reports UN report from July.
On a societal level, followers are banned from holding government positions, sometimes prohibited from obtaining identification cards, and face having their businesses closed. According to the Baha’i International Community these policies are mandated by the Memorandum of 1991 that enshrines discrimination in state policy.
UN experts in July raised alarm over a surge this year in arbitrary arrests and prosecutions affecting Baha’is. During September alone, Hengaw reported that security forces arrested at least six, issued prison sentences against four people, and searched and seized at least seven Baha’i properties.
These six arrests accounted for four percent of all arrests documented across Iran that month.
Similarly, Tehran has increasingly clashed with other minorities within its borders over the past few months.
The southeastern frontier has seen a series of clashes between Baloch armed militias and security forces. The latest death of a 25-year-old fuel carrier on Tuesday occurred after security focus opened fire on his vehicle.
Likewise, Kurdish populations in Iran’s west (Rojhelat) have been repeatedly targeted by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Tehran’s fear of domestic insurgency from its own minority populations comes amid renewed tensions on an international front. Tehran welcomed Saudi, Turkish, and Pakistani delegations on Monday to discuss regional security following fears that kinetic war could break out during the weekend.
