of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said that it seems that the government has already predetermined the outcome of the case and is violating international human rights law.[54] Further sessions were held on February 7, 2010,[34] April 12, 2010[55] and June 12, 2010.[56] On August 11, 2010 it became known that the court sentence was 20 years imprisonment for each of the seven prisoners,[57] which was later reduced to ten years.[58] After the sentence, they were transferred to Gohardasht prison.[59] In March 2011 the sentences were reinstated to the original 20 years.[60]

In June 2008, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi volunteered to be their lawyer,[51] and received threats against her life for defending the Baha'i community.[52] On December 21 Ebadi's office of the Center for the Defense ofHuman Rights was raided and closed. On December 29, government security officers posing as tax officials raided Ebadi's private law offices, seizing office files and computers.[49] A second lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani, reportedly taking up the case is reported to have disappeared June 16.[53]

On May 14, 2008, members of an informal body known as the Friends (Yaran) that oversaw the needs of the Bahá'í community in Iran were arrested and taken to Evin prison.[34][45] Officers from the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran searched and raided the homes of the six people in the early hours of May 14.[46] The arrest of the six follow the detention of another Bahá'í leader in March,[34] who was originally taken to answer questions relating to the burial of a Bahá'i in the Bahá'í