Iran’s intelligence ministry arrested nine members of the Bahai faith on charges of smuggling medicine and financial wrongdoing, The Associated Press reported on Monday, citing Iranian state media.
The arrested people, mostly members of one family, had roles in smuggling medicine though a network of dozens of pharmacies, the report said.
The suspects are accused of having bribed medics to send clients to the pharmacies and of being involved in money laundering and tax evasion.
Iran bans the Bahai faith, which was founded in the 1860s by a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by his followers.
The Islamic Republic considers the Bahai faith a heretical offshoot of Islam and accuses its followers of ties to Israel because a main Bahai shrine is located in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
In 2013, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a fatwa, urged Iranians to avoid all dealings with members of the banned Bahai sect.
In 2015, the US Senate condemned Iran’s persecution of the Bahai and urged Iran to free jailed members of the Bahai faith.
This past September, security forces in northern Iran arrested 12 followers of the Bahai faith and accused them of being "Zionist spies".