Navid Zarrebin Irani, a Baha'i photographer in Mashhad, put on trial after 9 months in detention

The first court session of Navid Zarrebin Irani, a photographer and Baha'i citizen living in Mashhad, was held at Branch 1 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court after more than 9 months in detention. News of the session was published on Tuesday, 20 October 2026. The proceedings have been postponed to another session whose date has not yet been announced, and the details of the charges against him have not been made public either.

Agents of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence arrested Navid Zarrebin Irani on 16 January 2026, in the days of the January uprising, at his home in Mashhad and in front of his child. He was held for months in the Mashhad Intelligence detention centre and in early Ordibehesht (late April) was transferred to Ward 1-6 of Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.

Endless pretrial detention and denial of defence

According to human rights activists, his pretrial detention order was extended month after month on the pretext that the Ministry of Intelligence's final report had not yet reached the court handling the case. The judicial authorities did not agree to his release on bail or even to a short-term leave. It had previously been reported that neither he, nor his family, nor his lawyer was allowed access to the case file, and that one of the charges raised at the interrogation stage was "propaganda activity against the system".

The repression of Baha'is and of those detained in January

His is one of hundreds of cases of those detained in the January uprising that have been left in limbo for months and are now being sent one after another to the Revolutionary Courts; courts that in recent weeks sentenced seven January protesters in Tehran to a total of 60 years in prison. Baha'i citizens, whom the Islamic Republic has deprived of the right to education, work and religious freedom since its earliest years, have also been a special target of the security bodies in this wave of repression.

Navid Zarrebin Irani spent more than 9 months in prison without trial and without access to his own case file.