The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a statement saying “it is disappointing that the Iranian government is demonstrating that it will use any pretext, however baseless, to harass and detain those whose religious beliefs differ from those enforced by the state.”

“Due process, something to which Iran is committed as a signatory of the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is absent from this case,” commission Chair Felice D. Gaer said in the statement.