The port city of Bushehr (or Bushihr) has a long and important association with the Baha’i community, as it was in Bushehr that Siyyid Ali-Muhammad Shirazi, known as the Bab, a co-founder of the Baha’i Faith, lived for six years from 1834 to 1840, engaged in commerce and writing the early compositions of his doctrines and teachings.

In recent times, there has been almost no news about harassment of the Baha’is in that town, but the following disturbing report was filed by the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, which appears below in translation:

According to a report received by our office, on Thursday, July 9, 2009, at 11:30 am, a number of individuals in civilian clothing who introduced themselves as agents of the Ministry of Intelligence went to the work place of Mr. Asadollah Jaberi in Bushehr and asked him to accompany them to his residence.

Upon arrival, they searched Mr. Jaberi’s home for three hours from 12 noon until 3 pm, and confiscated a large quantity of his personal property, such as books, CDs, videos, computer case, laptop, mobile phone, and other items belonging to the Jaberi family.

Once the search was concluded, the agents arrested Mr. Jaberi and his son, Amad (Kaveh) and took them to the local office of the Ministry of Intelligence.

At 3:30 pm, agents of the same Ministry went to the home of Farideh Jaberi [a daughter of Asadollah Jaberi] and confiscated her books, CDs, computer case and other personal items, and compelled her to present herself at the Ministry’s office in Bushehr on Saturday, July 11.

On the same day, the home of Mr. Parham Ranjir was searched at 7:30 pm, followed by the search of the residence of Mr. Bahram Zare’i at 8 pm, and the search of the home of Abbas Zare’i at 8:30 pm.  However, since Bahram Zare’i was away on a journey, the agents were not able to search his residence.

It should be noted that the arrest of Asadollah and Amad Jaberi took place without any court order or warrants, and the arresting agents did not specify the charge against these two individuals.  So far, no news has been received of their condition.

[Posted on July 10, 2009, at http://chrr.us/spip.php?article4478 and http://khabarnavard.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_9359.html.  Translation by Iran Press Watch.]