By DAVID CRARY
The leader of the small Baha’i community in Qatar was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for social media posts that allegedly “cast doubt on the foundations of the Islamic religion,” according to court documents obtained by an international Baha’i organization monitoring the case.
A three-judge panel of Qatar’s Supreme Judiciary Council issued the verdict against Remy Rowhani, 71, who has been detained since April, according to documents provided to The Associated Press by the Baha’i International Community office in Geneva, Switzerland.
The judges rejected a defense request for leniency on grounds that Rowhani suffered from a heart condition, according to the documentation.
Saba Haddad, the Geneva office’s representative to the United Nations, depicted the v