Afif Na’imi, a leader of Iran’s Baha’i community, has been released from prison after completing a ten-year sentence.

Na’imi had been arrested in 2008, together with six other community leaders and initially sentenced to twenty years in prison. On appeal, another court reduced his sentence to ten years.

The Baha’is are a religious minority in Iran considered as heretics by the ruling Shiite Muslim establishment and subjected to severe discrimination, persecution and often prosecution on trumped-up charges.

Na’imi and his fellow community leaders were accused of propaganda against the regime, “espionage” and “assembly and collusion against national security”.

The Baha’i international community has strongly rejected these accusations. International human rights organizations, many governments and experts have repeatedly condemned Iran’s treatment of the Baha’i community and other religious minorities.