Jamaloddin Khanjani

Detained: August 13, 2023.

Charges: None.

Sentence: None.

Biography: Jamaloddin Khanjani is detained for his religious association. He formerly served as a manager for a dissolved Baha'i group named "Yaran e Iran" or "Friends of Iran," an organization that aimed to address the spiritual and social needs of the Baha'i community. On May 14, 2008, authorities arrested Khanjani, a religious leader part of the Yaran group. He was placed in solitary confinement in Evin Prison and denied access to a lawyer. In January 2010, the first session of Khanjani's trial began. He was charged with "espionage for foreign countries," "propagating against the state," "founding and maintaining illegal groups," "collaboration with the Zionist occupying regime," "conspiracy to collect classified information and sharing it with foreign nations in an attempt to disrupt national security," "gathering and colluding against national security internally and externally," "defacing the Islamic Republic of Iran in the international community" and "corruption on Earth."

His wife, Ashraf Sobhani, passed away on March 10, 2010 while Khanjani was still in prison. In August 2010, Khanjani was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was then transferred to Rajaee Shahr Prison. In September 2010, it was reported that Khanjani's sentence had been reduced to ten years in prison after an appeals court dropped the espionage charge. On January 5th, 2015, Khanjani was transferred to a hospital in Tehran for health treatment. On March 16, 2018, Khanjani was released from prison after completing his sentence.

On August 13, 2023, security forces apprehended Khanjani and his daughter Maria Khanjani and took them to Evin Prison. The specific grounds for their detention, as well as the charges against them, remain undisclosed. Since 2022, three other members of the Yaran e Iran have been re-arrested.

Advocacy Partner: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Updates:

• The cases of Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mahvash Sabet, and Fariba Kamalabadi were highlighted in an April 2024 report by Human Rights Watch entitled “'The Boot on My Neck’: Iranian Authorities’ Crime of Persecution Against Baha’is in Iran” (April 1, 2024, Human Rights Watch).

Prior DFP Case: The Baha'i Seven — 2008-2018 Imprisonment

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Detained: May 14, 2008.

Released: March 16, 2018.

Charges: "Espionage for foreign countries," "propagating against the state," "founding and maintaining illegal groups," "collaboration with the Zionist occupying regime," "conspiracy to collect classified information and sharing it with foreign nations in an attempt to disrupt national security," "gathering and colluding against national security internally and externally," "defacing the Islamic Republic of Iran in the international community" and "corruption on Earth."

Final Sentence: Ten years in prison.

• Original Sentence: 20 years in prison.

Biography: Jamaloddin Khanjani was a successful factory owner who, because he was Baha’i, lost his business after the 1979 Islamic revolution.  Khanjani’s volunteer service to his religious community included membership on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran in 1984, a year in which four of its nine members were executed by the government.  Khanjani was arrested and imprisoned at least three times before this most recent incarceration in 2008.  He has four children and six grandchildren.  His wife, Ashraf Sobhani, passed away on March 10, 2010 while Khanjani was still in prison.  On January 5th, 2015, Khanjani was transferred to a hospital in Tehran for health treatment.

Jamaloddin Khanjani was RELEASED in March 2018 after completing his unjust ten-year sentence.