Iran’s Supreme Court approved of the Shiraz Revolutionary Courts ruling upon which 7 Gonabadi dervishes were convicted of belligerence and corruption on earth. Based on this ruling, 3 of these dervishes were sentenced to life long exile and 4 were sentenced to 28 years (in total) of temporary exile.
According to Majzooban Nour, Branch 15 of Supreme Court has sentenced 7 dervishes of Kavar to exile. Kazem Dehghan, Hamid Reza Arayesh, and Mohammad Ali Shamshirzan were sentenced to life long exile and Mohammad Ali Dehghan, Mohammad Ali Sadeghi, Ebrahim Bahrami and Mohsen Esmaiili were sentence to 7 years of temporary exile.
The seven dervishes were found guilty of belligerence (enmity with God-Moharebeh)and corruption where Mr Kazem Dehghan, Hamid Reza Arayesh and Mohammad Ali Shamshirzan were found, in addition, guilty of being members of illegal groups and conspiring to disrupt the country’s security. This is the second time that judicial authorities, in their ruling, have outlawed Gonabadi Dervishes community and membership in this group.
It is worth noting that these sentences have been passed as a consequence of a number of clergymen’s and self-willed bodies’ causing conflicts and skirmishes in the city of Kavar. In September 2011, four clergymen in Kavar instigated a rally which involved offensive chants and subsequent skirmishes and shooting resulting in a young dervish’s martyrdom and the arrest and imprisonment of several dervishes.
The abovementioned dervishes’ sentences were passed while the lawsuits filed by more than 40 Gonabadi dervishes against the instigators of this rally and distribution of night letters and CDs full of lies about dervishes have not been addressed by the specialist court of clerics. Nor has the lawsuit filed by the family of Mr. Vahid Banani who was shot and killed by security and military agents.
In a press conference, Ali Younesi, Hassan Rohani’s assistant in issues related to ethnic and religious minorities, considered how dervishes are treated in Iran “undesirable”, “self-willed”, “beyond the state’s and government’s will”, and against “the law of the Islamic Republic”. He also said that these incidents have happened before but are not happening anymore. Despite his insistence that “dervishes’ issues are being resolved”, the legal system has continued to put Gonabadi dervishes under pressure and impose severe sentences on them.