Hadi (Moslem) Rahimi has begun serving his four-year prison sentence for “acting against national security” by attending a house-church and “spreading ‘Zionist’ Christianity”.

The 32-year-old delivery driver, who has a nine-month-old daughter, handed himself in to Tehran’s Evin Prison on Sunday morning (9 January) so that the property deed submitted by a friend to secure his bail may be released.

Moslem was one of four converts to receive sentences in August 2020 of between two and five years in prison.

Moslem was given a four-year sentence, while Ramin Hassanpour was given five years and there were two-year sentences for Ramin’s wife Saeede, and another woman, Sakine (Mehri) Behjati.

Their appeals were rejected in September 2020.

The others remain free on bail, for now.

Background 

The four, all members of the non-Trinitarian “Church of Iran”, were first arrested in February 2020.

In May 2020, they spent a week in Lakan Prison in Rasht, having been unable to afford the 500 million toman bail ($30,000) set for them after the charges against them were read out at Branch 10 of the Revolutionary Court in Rasht.

They were eventually released on reduced bail of 200 million tomans ($11,500).

Ramin and Kathrin have two sons – one of whom was 16 when they were taken to prison and forced to look after himself for the week – and the other was just seven and therefore went to stay with his grandfather.