As scapegoating of Baha’is continues in state-run media, Iranian authorities announce the charges against the recently arrested Baha’is.

The Tehran persecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, was quoted today by IRNA as saying that the Baha’is recently arrested in Tehran were detained for playing a role in organizing protests on Ashura and sending photographs of the protests abroad. According to the persecutor, “they were not arrested because they are Bahais. Arms and ammunition were seized in the homes of some of them”. This is a particularly dangerous charge, because armed struggle against the Islamic Republic is a crime punishable by death.

Iranian state-run media outlets have continued to accuse Baha’is of being behind the recent unrest in Iran, most notably the mass demonstrations on Ashura (December 27). Iran Press TV reported earlier this week about a briefing officials from the Ministry of Intelligence gave to Iranian lawmakers of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the majlis (Iranian parliament). In the briefing, the intelligence officials said that monarchists, anti-revolutionary Marxists and Baha’is are behind the unrest.

Raja News, a website associated with the Ahmedinejad government, claimed that in the recent elections some members of the Baha’i “sect”, along with the Mujahideen-e Khalq supported Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, in a clear attempt to discredit the opposition leaders. According to the report, “leaders of the Baha’i community have launched a campaign so that Western countries and Israel take postures against the Islamic regime”.