Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the re-imprisonment of Fariba Kamalabadi and Mahvash Sabet in Iran.

The UK unequivocally condemns the persecution of religious minorities in Iran. Reports of increased detentions, expropriation of land and destruction of homes indicate the regime redoubled its repression of the Baha'i community in 2022. On 20 December 2022, the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Fiona Bruce, expressed the UK's condemnation of the sentencing of Baha'i leaders Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi to a further decade of imprisonment. In 2023, we continue to work closely with our international partners to hold Iran to account for its dire human rights record, and to raise these issues with the regime at all appropriate opportunities.