The Baha’i World News service – a Haifa-based service that “reports on activities of the worldwide Baha’i community and on events that affect the Baha’i Faith ” – published details yesterday on the murder of Ataollah Rezvani, a “well-known member of the Iranian Baha’i community.” Rezvani was reportedly killed by what the outlet describes as “fanatical elements” in his home city of Bandar.

Though founded in Iran during the 19th century, the Baha’i faith is banned by law in the Islamic republic. The sect is not recognized by Iran’s post-Revolutionary constitution and is considered heretical. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 was explicit that the Baha’i minority should be granted neither religious nor political liberty under an Islamic government.

The regime has been blasted for persecuting and imprisoning even Baha’i infants.

Earlier this month Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa denigrating the religion and instructing Iranian citizens to avoid all dealings with its members:

The fatwa, or religious edict, by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is his latest against the group. It supports similar fatwas in the past by other clerics. An Iranian news website, Tasnim, reported Wednesday that Khamenei called the Baha’i “deviant and misleading.”

The plight of the Baha’i community has triggered human rights pressure on Tehran from U.S. and Canadian politicians. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has also criticized Iran over its persecution of religious minorities.

[Photo: Lenziran Newsvideo / YouTube]