A lawyer who has defended political prisoners including several Iranian Christians has been released on bail after over two months in Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz.

Bahar Sahraian was released on Tuesday, 21 July, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

She had been arrested on 16 May, while following up on her cases at the Shiraz Revolutionary Court, and charged with “assembly and collusion to act against national security”, “propaganda activities against the Islamic system”, and “publishing falsehoods”.

HRANA reports that she was held incommunicado and denied the chance to speak to her family during her detention, while her family’s initial requests for Bahar to be released on bail were opposed.

This is not the first time Bahar has been arrested on account of her work. In 2022, she was one of over 30 lawyers arrested in the wake of the nationwide protests that followed the death in custody of Mahsa Jina Amini. 

Bahar has defended Christians including Sam Khosravi and Maryam Falahi, whose adopted daughter, Lydia, was ordered by a court to be removed from their care because they had converted to Christianity and Lydia was considered to have been born a Muslim; and Sara Ahmadi and Homayoun Zhaveh, who were sentenced to a combined 10 years in Tehran’s Evin Prison, even though Homayoun, in his 60s, suffered from advanced Parkinson’s disease.

In Sam and Maryam’s case, Bahar managed to obtain two fatwas from Grand Ayatollahs – the most senior Shia Islamic authority in Iran – declaring that, owing to the “critical nature” of the case, poor health of the child and undisputed emotional attachment with her parents, Lydia’s adoption by Christian converts was “permissible”.

She was also one of 120 lawyers to sign an open letter to the head of the judiciary at the time, Ebrahim Raisi, calling on him to overturn the decision. (He did not.)

Another lawyer who has defended several Christians, Shima Ghosheh, was arrested in January this year and released in March on bail equivalent to nearly $40,000 dollars.

Shima has represented Christians including Victor Bet-Tamraz, whose Witness Statement was recently published by Article18, and converts facing charges of “apostasy”, which in the past has resulted in death sentences.