Qatar sentenced the leader of the country’s Baha’i community on Wednesday to five years imprisonment after he allegedly made a social media post which was said to “cast doubt on the foundations of the Islamic religion,” according to UN officials, Baha’i organizations, and international media reports.
Remi Rowhani, 71, was first detained on April 28, and an informed source told Human Rights Watch that the Qatari courts had denied Rowhani’s lawyer’s request to review court documents outlining the charges and evidence against him.
The Baha’i International Community said the posts discussed “principles such as justice and the equality of men and women, honoring parents and raising children with good manners, and calling for good deeds and service to humanity.”
Rowhani was also charged with violating social principles and values using information technology, under Article 8 of the 2014 Cybercrime Prevention Law, and disseminating material that calls and promotes the adoption of “destructive principles,” under Article 47(b) of the 1979 Law on Publications and Publishing, based on court documents reviewed by HRW.
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of Qatar’s Supreme Judiciary Council found Rowhani guilty and rejected defense attempts for leniency.
The 71-year-old faith leader reportedly suffers from a heart condition, leading to the defense to request for leniency against him.
Saba Haddad, the Geneva office’s representative to the United Nations, described the council’s decision as “a serious breach and grave violation of the right to freedom of religion or belief and an attack on Remy Rowhani and the Baha’i community in Qatar.”
Haddad’s office, in a post on X/Twitter, called on the international community “to urge Qatar’s government to uphold international law and ensure Mr. Rowhani’s immediate release.”
“Imprisoning Remy Rowhani on a series of baseless charges rooted solely in his religious identity and activities is a serious breach of human rights law and a grave violation of the right to freedom of religion or belief,” Haddad told HRW. “This attack on Remy Rowhani is an attack on all Baha’is in Qatar—and on the very principle of freedom of conscience.”
“Imprisoning Remy Rowhani for five years, on a series of abusive charges rooted solely in his religious identity and activities within the Qatari Baha’i community, is a serious breach of human rights law,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Qatari authorities should respect fundamental freedoms and immediately release Rowhani.”
Rowhani had previously allegedly been arrested by Qatari authorities on December 23, 2024, for fundraising without permission from the Directors of the Regulatory Authority for Charitable Activities in 2013 and 2014. He was fined 50,000 Qatari rials and sentenced to a month's imprisonment.
The Baha'i community claimed at the time that the "Qatari court framed Mr. Rowhani in a prejudicial case judged in absentia."
What is the Baha’i faith?
The religious minority bases its theology on the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, two holy men considered divine messengers.
The Báb announced in the middle of the 19th century that he was destined to transform humanity’s spiritual life through a divine message.
While the Baha’i people recognize many Abrahamic and internationally recognized religious figures as divine educators, including Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, they have faced persecution and discrimination in the Middle East.
While many reports focus on Iran’s abuse of the religious community, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has previously decried Doha’s deportation of Baha’i leaders.
Qatari authorities issued a deportation order for Wahid Bahji in January 2025, alleging he was “Disrupting public order.”
Bahji, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is, left in March and has since found himself blacklisted from the country he has resided in since birth.
Bahji had never had any legal issues whatsoever with the government and was not provided with any justification regarding his deportation, according to OHCHR.