Free Baha´i Member Noura Nabilzadeh

UPDATE Sen´s Daily May 2 . 2013

Noora Nabilzadeh and Sanaz Tafazzoli transferred to the Intelligence office

Noora Nabilzadeh ( نورا نبیل‌زاده) and Sanaz Tafazzoli ( ساناز تفضلی ) were transferred from Vakil Abad prison in Mashhad, where they are in the serving sentences in the wing for prisoners of conscience, to the offices of the Ministry of Intelligence on May 1. No reason was given. The agents said they were being taken to the Ministry’s facilities for 10 days. Sanaz Tafazzoli will complete her 6-month sentence on May 5, but it appears she will not be released. Noora Nabilzadeh is serving a 5-year sentence on charges of blasphemy and spreading the Bahai Faith. She was arrested while playing music for the children in an orphanage.

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After being summoned, Noura Nabilzadeh, a Mashad Bahai citizen, appeared at the Mashad Judiciary's Sentence Enforcement Unit, where she was detained and transferred to Vakilabad Prison in order to begin serving her five year prison sentence on Saturday, September 15, 2012. She was accompanied by Sonia Ahmadi, another Bahai citizen, who was also sentenced to five years in prison by the Revolutionary Court. Sonia Ahmadi commenced her prison sentence, too.

Noura Nabilzadeh, 23, was first arrested on June 22, 2010, when she and some of her friends were playing music at a Mashad orphanage. Mashad security forces entered the orphanage, presented a warrant for her arrest and transferred her to her home, where they searched the premises, confiscated Bahai books, images, and CD's, her laptop computer, a computer hard disk, and cell phones belonging to the entire family. Noura Nabilzadeh was then transferred to Mashad's Intelligence Office Detention Center, where she remained for three months and was released on bail of $50,000 on September 19, 2011.

Later, Noura Nabilzadeh was sentenced to five years in prison by a Mashad Revolutionary Court on charges of "propagating the Bahai faith," and "Membership in the Bahai community," and an appeals court upheld her sentence in full on May 30, 2012,

In addition to Noura Nabilzadeh and Sonia Ahmadi, three other female Bahai prisoners by the names of Rozita Vaseghi, Nahid Gahdiri, and Sima Eshraghi are also serving their five-year prison sentences on charges of "propagating the Bahai faith," and "belonging to the Bahai community."

Noura Nabilzadeh's father, Davar Nabilzadeh, and her uncle, Jalayer Vahdat, are also currently serving their five year prison sentences inside the Vakilabad facility, where they have been prisoners for more than two years.