Venus Hosseini-Nejad and Peyvand Naeimi were taken from their workplaces by Iranian security forces in January and later forced to confess on state TV to arranging protests their families say they were never part of.
Their families told ABC reporter Nassim Khadem these youths — who are members of the Baha’i’ religious minority and for decades have faced persecution in Iran — are being falsely accused and used as “scapegoats”. Their families say the pair have been transferred from a detention facility to prison and fear they could face the death penalty.
Early this week, US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimated more than 7,000 people have been killed and there have been almost 54,000 arrests in this wave of protests. A group of doctors in Iran reported in late January that there could have been as many as 30,000 people killed by the regime over two days of protests alone.
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