Systematic persecution of Iran's Baha'is under a policy he approved
A 1991 government memorandum that the Baha'i community says Khamenei approved and signed called for Baha'is to be treated so that 'their progress and development shall be blocked'. The community's seven leaders received 20-year sentences in 2010, Khamenei issued a fatwa in 2013 calling the faith deviant, and Human Rights Watch calls the repression a crime against humanity.
Editorial timeline of public reporting, not a legal finding.
- Confidential memorandum on the 'Baha'i question' signed by Khamenei - The Baha'i World News Service reported that the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council prepared a confidential memorandum at the request of Khamenei and Rafsanjani, signed by Seyyed Mohammad Golpaygani and approved and signed by Khamenei, calling for Baha'is to be treated so 'that their progress and development shall be blocked'. It came to light in a 1993 report by the UN Special Representative. The 1991 memorandum on the Baha'i question
- Seven Baha'i leaders sentenced to 20 years - Amnesty International condemned the 20-year sentences given to seven members of the Yaran leadership group, five men and two women held for over two years, calling the charges politically motivated. The Baha'i International Community reported that two of them, Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, were sentenced to a second 10-year term in 2022. Sentences against jailed Iranian religious minority leaders condemned
- Fatwa urging Iranians to avoid Baha'is as a 'deviant' sect - Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported that Khamenei issued a fatwa calling on Iranians to avoid Baha'is and labelling them a 'deviant and misleading sect'. It said the fatwa called into question any early improvement for religious minorities under the new Rouhani government. Fatwa issued against Baha'i community
- Human Rights Watch finds the crime against humanity of persecution - Human Rights Watch reported that four decades of serial violations of Baha'is' rights had been 'directed by the state's most senior officials', and that the cumulative impact of this systematic repression amounts to the crime against humanity of persecution. The Boot on My Neck: Iranian Authorities' Crime of Persecution Against Baha'is in Iran