At least 10 still detained as numbers of arrests and affected cities rise 10 August 2023 News A clearer picture is beginning to emerge of the dozens of arrests of Christians that took place over a seven-week period in June and July, across as many as 11 Iranian cities. Article18 previously reported that over 50 Christians had been arrested in the space of seven days in mid-July, across five different cities. The number of confirmed arrests now stands at at least 69*, across 11 cities, and with at least 10 of those arrested – four men and six women – still in detention. The arrests took place between 1 June and 17 July. And as well as the previously reported arrests in Tehran, Karaj, Rasht, Orumiyeh and Aligoudarz, Article18 can now confirm that arrests also took place in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Semnan, Garmsar, Varamin and Eslamshahr. Those who have been released have reported being forced to sign commitments to refrain from further Christian activities, or ordered to attend Islamic re-education sessions. Others said they were summoned for further questioning in the days after their release, or ordered to leave Iran, while one said his employment was terminated at the request of intelligence agents. Bail amounts have ranged between 400 million ($8,000) and 2 billion tomans ($40,000). For now, Article18 is not at liberty to provide any more details about the individuals involved, but while the vast majority are converts to Christianity, at least two of those arrested are Iranian-Armenians. We will provide further updates in due course. The rash of new arrests of Christians have coincided with a renewed crackdown on Iran’s Baha’i community, which alongside Christian converts is another unrecognised religious minority group. Yesterday, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom bemoaned the new crackdown on Baha’is, noting that “in recent months, scores … have been arrested, tried, and jailed on religiously-grounded charges and targeted on the basis of their faith”. Article18’s advocacy director, Mansour Borji, noted last month that the Iranian authorities had clearly begun “a fresh crackdown on civil liberties”, adding that the “traditionally vulnerable groups, such as Christians, are on the frontline of those targeted”. Mr Borji also suggested that the return of a more forceful approach by the authorities, including a renewed crackdown by the so-called “morality police”, may be “to send out a message, both nationally and internationally,” ahead of the anniversary of the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, “that they [the authorities] are not moved or deterred”. *Update (November 2023): By November 2023, Article18 had documented at least 106 arrests between June and September, across 12 cities (Kermanshah, in addition to those previously mentioned).
Iranian Christian asylum-seeker’s art displayed at UK gallery 9 August 2023 News (Photo: Twitter@firstsite) A set of three handwoven rugs by an Iranian Christian asylum-seeker are so impressive and significant that they should be displayed in a national museum, according to the director of the art gallery currently exhibiting the works. Mehdi Jalalaghdamian’s rugs, created during the six years he spent in Sweden after fleeing Iran, are symbolic both of his own journey and also of countless others, says Sally Shaw, director of the Firstsite museum in Colchester, southeast England, which has been displaying the works since last September. The central work, which took Mehdi 18 months to make, is a collage of harrowing images of life as a refugee, including Trump’s border wall, migrants struggling to survive in the ocean, and asylum-seekers lining up outside a church. (Photo: Twitter@HenryLong9) The other two rugs show Christ on the cross, and the queen of Sweden, the latter of which Mehdi said he offered to the Swedish government as a gift to thank them for his years there. Ms Shaw first encountered Mehdi in November 2021, soon after his arrival in the UK, when he was one of a number of asylum-seekers taken by a local charity, Refugee, Asylum-seeker & Migrant Action (RAMA), to see an exhibition at Firstsite. And it was during this visit that Maria Wilby, director of RAMA, noticed Mehdi’s special interest in the art, and asked for an explanation. “He said, ‘I’m an artist’, and showed her a picture of the rug, the big one,” Ms Shaw told Article18. “And she said, ‘Can you send me that picture? Because I think Sally would be interested in seeing it.’ And she sent me a text, and said, ‘Mehdi’s in your gallery; you need to meet him.’ And that was that.” A year later, Mehdi’s works were themselves on display at Firstsite, and Ms Shaw’s hope is that the works will go on to gain even more prominence. “They’re just extraordinary,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of art over the years, and I just think these are just the most incredible things I’ve seen in my entire career. “Our whole gallery is about why creativity is important, and trying to get to the bottom of that and understand it, because it’s actually a really fundamental human pursuit. And the fact that Mehdi, in whatever circumstances he was in, in Sweden, having made whatever kind of journey he has made from Iran, the fact that he chose to actually make something creative at that point, to me is really, really interesting. “He could have done so many things with his time. And time is the one thing that he does have a lot of – it’s one of the few things that he has a lot of – and he chose to do this with it, and I think that’s the most extraordinary act of protest. It’s really incredible. In my view, this is the kind of thing that should be in a big national museum.” In the meantime, Ms Shaw says that Firstsite will use the grant they received for winning Museum of the Year in 2021 to help support Mehdi “in whatever way we can”, starting by offering him a position as artist-in-residence. (Photo: Twitter@firstsite)
Notorious prison’s demolition will destroy evidence of crimes against humanity, warns rights group 8 August 2023 News A notorious prison outside Tehran is set to be demolished in an attempt by the Islamic Republic to destroy evidence of the crimes against humanity committed there, according to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights. Thousands of political prisoners were massacred at the Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj in the 1980s, and Iran Human Rights says that “destroying the evidence is without doubt one of the key motivations behind its closure”. Rajaei Shahr will also have a permanent place in the history of Iran’s Christians, having housed many Iranian Christian prisoners of conscience over the years, such as Farshid Fathi, who was detained in a ward alongside dangerous criminals, and Ebrahim Firouzi, who was once beaten by the prison guards there for refusing to attend an appeal hearing because the court had not accepted new evidence submitted in his case. The prison was also the scene of one of the most pivotal moments in the Iranian Church’s recent history, when in 2004 nine senior pastors of the Assemblies of God denomination were held for four nights in solitary confinement and pressured to accept numerous demands, such as no longer welcoming converts to their churches. According to one of the pastors who was detained, Farhad Sabokrooh, “this agreement later became the basis for the Ministry of Intelligence to close our churches”. “They argued that: ‘You didn’t adhere to the text of the 2004 agreement, and that’s why we closed your churches,’” the pastor explained in his Witness Statement, published last year. Farhad with his wife, Shahnaz. There are now just four Persian-speaking churches left in Iran – all Anglican – but even these have not been able to reopen since the Covid-19 pandemic, while no new members are permitted, meaning that across the four churches there are now fewer than 100 members and this number will only further decrease in the years to come. “Your churches have no right to continue their activities,” the AoG pastors were told in 2004, explained Pastor Sabokrooh. “According to the 10-year plan that we are working on, all Evangelical churches, including all branches of the Assemblies of God, must stop their activities. “From now on, your churches don’t have the right to evangelise and advertise your beliefs, especially among Muslims; you don’t have the right to accept new members; you should inform the Ministry of Intelligence before doing any activity; you mustn’t baptise anyone; even if it is an Armenian or Assyrian [recognised as Christians] who is going to be baptised, you must inform the Ministry of Intelligence. “We know many people come to your churches of their own accord, but you have no right to let them enter. Tell them, ‘The law has changed and you aren’t allowed to enter.’ If they insist, get a written commitment from them that they themselves must accept the consequences of coming to a church and know they may be summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence and questioned. “Whether you like it or not, we are the leaders, the rulers of this country, and therefore we must know what is happening in the churches; this is our most natural right. We must know what decisions the churches make, what thoughts they have. This is an Islamic country, and we cannot accept that through the propaganda of churches Muslims become Christians and convert to Christianity. One of the ideals of our revolution is that the rest of the nations become Muslims; not that Muslims become Christians, which goes against the interests of the Islamic government!” You can read the pastor’s full Witness Statement here. The light was on 24 hours a day Mani with his wife, Marjan. Another Christian who spent 12 days in solitary confinement in Rajaei Shahr, Mohsen (Mani) Aliabady Ravari, described the conditions there in his Witness Statement. “I was taken to a cell that was 3m x 3m, and had a little window with thin metal bars across it,” Mani explained. “On a raised platform in the cell there was a toilet and a shower. They gave me three blankets: one as a pillow, one as a blanket, and one to lie on. The light in the room was on 24 hours a day. Food was handed over through a small opening in the cell door. “We had heard from some Christians that had previously been arrested and imprisoned about the kind of questions that Christians are asked during interrogations. They wanted us to be ready for that day. Five days after my arrest, the interrogations began. For seven days I was interrogated, and some days not once but twice – at noon and in the afternoon. I was told with an insulting and mocking tone that one of my charges was that I was a member of ‘Evangelical Christianity’ and had been evangelising others and doing church activities. Ebrahim Firouzi was also detained in Rajaei Shahr. “The interrogator was sometimes harsh and sometimes kind, so that he could reach his goals through various techniques. During one interrogation, there were several agents in the room, as well as the interrogator. During that interrogation, they didn’t remove my blindfold. They tried to use verses from the Quran and Hadiths to show that I had been deceived, and told me that when someone evangelised to me they had attacked my culture and religion. “I spent 12 days in solitary confinement and one day in the general ward of the prison. On the last day of my imprisonment, I told an official that I would have to explain at my workplace where I had been for the past 13 days, so they handed me a letter with the prison’s letterhead, stating the date and duration of my detention, and the reason for my imprisonment. But there was no signature and no stamp. “In that letter they wrote my charges: ‘Actions against the security of the regime’, ‘Propaganda against the regime’, and ‘Smuggling illegal goods.’ As they had confiscated Bibles and many other Christian books from our home, they saw me as a smuggler, belonging to ‘Evangelical Christianity’, and the Bibles were the illegal goods.” You can read Mani’s full Witness Statement here.
Over 50 Christians in five cities arrested in new crackdown 18 July 2023 News More than 50 Christian converts have been arrested in a rash of new incidents across five Iranian cities over the past seven days, with fears the number could rise much higher as fresh reports keep coming in. At least 51 of those arrested at their homes or house-churches – in the cities of Tehran, Karaj, Rasht, Orumiyeh and Aligoudarz – remain in detention on unknown charges, while others have been released on bail. Article18 cannot at this time share any more details about the incidents, but after very few publicly reported arrests of Christians so far this year, the news marks a clear change in approach. Mansour Borji, Article18’s advocacy director, commented: “The reason for this sudden surge in nationwide arrests of Christians is not clear at this stage. What is obvious is that Iran has begun a fresh crackdown on civil liberties, and the traditionally vulnerable groups, like Christians, are on the front line of those targeted.” Mr Borji drew a parallel between the recent visible return of the morality police to the streets, saying that “overall there seems to be a renewed or more aggressive crackdown on groups the regime feels threatened by”. “The relative withdrawal of the so-called ‘morality police’ forces from the streets in recent months was perhaps an attempt to restore peace after months of protests that were violently suppressed,” he said. “However, that approach seems now to have given way to a new wave of aggressive social policing, which could potentially reignite protests, as only within a day of visibly reintroducing the morality police the people are back on the streets.” With just two months until the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini – the event that sparked the unparalleled protests – Mr Borji added that the return to a more forceful approach may be “to send out a message, both nationally and internationally, that they are not moved or deterred, though the reality may be completely different as recent admissions by IRGC commanders and senior officials show that elements of the government and core elites feared an ‘imminent collapse’ of the system, while warning against the resurgence of protests”. Article18 will continue to share any updates regarding the latest incidents, as they come in.
‘I carry the grief of my son’s death like a suppressed cry’ 17 July 2023 News Yasser (left) and his son, Amir-Ali, who died while his father was in prison. An Iranian Christian prisoner of conscience has written about his grief at the loss of his only son and his struggle to understand the reason for his imprisonment, in a letter smuggled out of prison. In the letter, first shared by the Mirror newspaper and now seen by Article18, Mehdi Akbari, who prefers to be known as Yasser, says he carries the grief within him “like a suppressed cry and an unexpressed sorrow”. He is also brutally honest about the difficulties he has faced since his 2019 arrest, such as being detained for a month in solitary confinement, denied access to a lawyer, and convicted in a five-minute sham trial. The Christian convert says that even after three years in Tehran’s Evin Prison, he is still unable to understand how his membership of a house-church could have been viewed as an “action against national security” – the charge for which he was sentenced in 2020 to 10 years’ imprisonment. “Is worshipping God a crime?” he asks. “When I was accused of ‘action against the country’s security’, I did not have a lawyer to ask him about the meaning of this accusation and what crimes are included in the definition.” Yasser says that before he was taken to the Revolutionary Court, he had thought “a fair judge, well aware of what constitutes a crime, especially the serious crime I was accused of, would examine the evidence presented before him and realise I have only worshipped God according to my Christian faith, permissible under Article 13 of the Iranian Constitution, and therefore acquit me of any crime and save me from prison”. Amir-Ali had cerebral palsy. “But what an illusion that was!” he adds. Yasser describes his court hearing as “hundreds of times worse than the interrogations”, explaining: “If the interrogators tried to impose one crime on me, in this court the judge attributed many more crimes to me that beforehand I could never have imagined. He labelled Christianity a ‘false sect’, of which he said I was a follower. He expanded the boundaries of criminalisation against me so ignorantly that he even mistakenly seemed to consider Jews and Christians as followers of the same religion. He declared me a follower of ‘the deviant religion of Christianity’, and also ‘a Jewish person affiliated to Israel’.” “Now that I have spent three years in prison,” Yasser says, “I still do not know how I was able to act against Iran’s national security by being a follower of Christ. “Having no lawyer, I still don’t know how to defend myself within the framework of the law, considering what they did to me. I don’t know what to say if someone asked me how I acted against national security. I only know that I am, and will remain, a Christian, and that I will preach about the light of God and kingdom of heaven to everyone.” Yasser says his experiences have tormented his soul as well as his body, saying: “If a prisoner loses his faith, he will surely be crushed.” “When the night drags its black mantle over the prison,” he writes, “and the sadness sinks in with the sunset, the beats of the seconds of the clock hit like a whip in my mind, and I begin to wonder: I wonder if this faith of mine is worth enduring such pressures.” “Time and time again, I have found myself surrounded with these thoughts,” Yasser says, “and each time I have answered firmly: ‘Yes, of course it is worth it.’” Yasser says that he was shocked when the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court both confirmed the verdict against him, and says he hopes his imprisonment may at least make a difference to others. Yasser (left) with Mehdi Rokhparvar, alongside whom he was imprisoned. “If my presence within these prison walls means that I would be the last prisoner of conscience, and causes other religious minorities of my country to be able to freely worship God according to their own faiths, as stipulated in Article 13 of the Constitution, then not only do I have no complaints but I accept it with love,” he writes. “Perhaps it is necessary for everyone to be made aware that, in my country, despite the laws and Constitution, they consider Christianity a ‘deviant faith’, and with no reason they consider worshipping God in this way to be a collusion with foreign governments, punishable by a judicial ruling.” “Yes, it may be necessary,” he concludes, “but what else should I do from behind these walls? I do not know. Perhaps the truth should be told without exaggeration, so that everyone hears.” As reported by the Mirror, Yasser also shares in his letter about his final moments with his son, whom he eventually achieved permission to visit – “after writing dozens of letters” – two months before he died. “When Amir-Ali saw me in handcuffs and prison clothes, he was reassured that I had not abandoned him, even in such conditions,” Yasser writes. “It was as though my son had endured his painful illness for just a little longer so we might have one final chance to meet, albeit in prison clothes and in the presence of officers. “Due to the court order, I had to go back to my cell, but I consider the best moment of my life to be the last time I hugged my Amir-Ali. “Two months later, Amir-Ali passed away. I mourned his loss in prison, and bemoaned my sense of remorse for not being by his bedside in his last moments. The prison authorities did not agree to a short leave from prison for me to attend Amir-Ali’s burial. Only a few days afterwards was I sent on leave for 10 days.”
‘As a mother there was nothing I could do to calm my child and it was very painful’ 14 July 2023 Features Amid and Sanaz with their two boys, Danial and Benjamin. Amid and Sanaz’s son Danial was just four years old when Ministry of Intelligence agents came to arrest his parents. The agents – three male, two female – first searched the family’s home and confiscated anything that could conceivably be considered related to Christianity, including some of Danial’s toys. “‘Why are you taking that?’ I asked when an agent took away one of my son’s toys: a Santa in a snow globe,” Sanaz recalls. “He said: ‘It’s a symbol of Christianity, and should be confiscated!’” “My son was crying profusely and wanted his tablet and toys,” Amid says. “It was very painful to see my son’s fear and tears.” Amid and Sanaz had converted to Christianity a few years earlier, and after the Persian-speaking church they had been attending was told it could no longer welcome converts, they had started hosting church services in their home. By the time of their arrest, in December 2015, Amid and Sanaz had been hosting church services for around three and a half years, and Amid says that “for a while” they had been anticipating the day of their arrest. Because of this, he explains, the couple had even cancelled their Christmas party that year, and had hidden some of their personal items, like their passports, baptism certificates, and computer, which contained information about the names of church members, as well as audio files of sermons and worship songs. They also had a number of Bibles and Christian books hidden away in a corner of their yard, covered with a cloth, and although the agents searched the house from 6.30 in the morning until noon, they didn’t find them. But they did find the family’s Christmas trees. “The agent took them and said: ‘They haven’t got just one or two, but three trees!’” Sanaz explains. “‘Now we’ll take you and give you a lecture so that from now on you celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad!’” Amid’s elderly parents lived on the floor above them, and “cried a lot” during their arrest, Amid says, and asked: “Sir, where are you taking them? What will happen to them?” “The officers didn’t answer their questions,” Amid says, “though one of them eventually lied: ‘In the afternoon or tomorrow, they’ll return home.’ Then he said to my son: ‘Don’t worry, your mum will come back soon and clean the house.’ My father, mother and son were crying, and mine and my wife’s hearts were full of pain.” Sanaz adds: “My son Danial was afraid of the behaviour of the agents, and was crying, and now he was going to be left without us, and had to stay with his grandparents. I asked an agent to let me hold my son for a minute before leaving, but he wouldn’t allow it!” You can read Amid and Sanaz’s full Witness Statement here. Amid and Sanaz were then driven away, and detained separately in unknown locations – in conditions Amid describes as “excruciating”, and “like hell” – for 18 and seven days, respectively, during which time they were repeatedly interrogated about their Christian activities, threatened, and told to “repent and return to Islam”. At first, they were also refused permission to call their son, but even when this permission was eventually granted, they were made to regret it. “When I called, my husband’s family picked up the phone and cried when they heard my voice and said: ‘Where are you?’” Sanaz recalls. “‘Since the day you left, your child has only been crying and won’t stop!’ I could hear Danial crying. As a mother, there was nothing I could do to calm my child and it was very painful. I talked to my son for about two to three minutes. Hearing my son crying made me feel worse and I said to myself that I wish I hadn’t called. “After I ended the call, the interrogator said: ‘Where is your Jesus now? You heard your child crying; now calm him down!’ I said: ‘I didn’t do anything bad or wrong!’ He said: ‘You changed the thinking of a generation, and you say I didn’t do anything!’” After Sanaz’s release on bail, she was summoned again and told that her husband would only be released if they both signed two blank promissory notes, which essentially meant pledging to pay an unknown person the equivalent of $200,000. “We want to be reassured that you won’t continue your Christian activities once you are released,” the interrogator explained to Amid when he was asked to add his signature to the notes. “If you start your activities again, we’ll arrest you, and this time we’ll take you to the prison because the promissory notes show you owe a lot of money!” A photograph of Amid on the day of his release. Even after he was released, Amid says they felt they were under constant supervision. For the first few days, he says they “didn’t even dare to pray at home”. “We didn’t feel safe, even in our home,” he says. “We couldn’t talk easily, or even have marital relations. Everywhere we went, they deliberately showed themselves to us to convey the message that ‘we’re watching you’… They had stolen our peace.” Less than two months after Amid’s release, the couple fled to Turkey. They were later sentenced, in absentia, to a year each in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic regime in favour of hostile groups”. After their departure, the intelligence agents turned their attention to their families, banning them from leaving the country for 18 months, and summoning them several times for interrogation. During one summons, Sanaz’s father was told: “We had mercy on Amid and Sanaz and temporarily released them. Tell them to come back and introduce themselves. We are an Islamic Republic; if they don’t come back, we can put them in a sack and bring them back! But if we have to go to get them ourselves, know that their sentence will be death!” Amid and Sanaz have not returned, but the memories of those days still remain – for all of them. “Even though many years have passed, our son Danial remembers all the bitter memories of our detention,” Amid explains. “He became very afraid of being left alone because of our arrest. We couldn’t leave him alone even for a few minutes. For example, when we went to the grocery store, I would ask him to stay behind but he would cry and say: ‘I’m afraid that they’ll take you and you won’t come back, or something will happen to you!’ When he was younger, even when he was playing in his room he would keep calling me and his mother to make sure we were home… It’s a little better now.” Amid and Sanaz now have another son, Benjamin, who is today the same age that their firstborn was the day their lives changed forever. ‘Asylum-seekers are in a critical situation’ It’s now more than seven years since Amid and Sanaz arrived in Turkey and claimed asylum, but they are still waiting to be interviewed about their case. “When we entered Turkey, the United Nations was here and told us the process would take two years,” Amid explains. “So we thought that that meant 2018. But now it is 2023, and our case is now in the hands of the Turkish police, and they haven’t done anything either. The plight of Iranian Christian refugees in Turkey was the subject of a recent report by Article18 and three partner organisations. “They always promise, ‘Go, and we’ll take care of it. Come back in another month, or a week, two days, or three days,’ but they never do anything. And it feels systematic. It’s like they have an official plan to postpone everything.” Amid says that being refugees in Turkey is like living in “a big prison, where we aren’t allowed to decide on the smallest matters of our own, or even to go outside the city walls, because we are refugees”. “Asylum-seekers who are Christians are in a critical situation,” he says. “Mine and my family’s situation is very sad, and not only my family’s but many Christian refugees who are here today. They are neither heard, nor are they allowed to be heard, and with the least tension or issue they are easily taken and sent back to the country that is waiting to imprison them, or something even worse. “It’s sad to think that one day such a situation might happen to me, but not only to me, but to any of us. I want to say that I think something should be done, and I hope that maybe someone will read this and think that they can even help one family to get out of this situation.” The plight of Iranian Christian refugees in Turkey was the subject of a recent report by Article18 and three partner organisations. You can read the report here, and Amid and Sanaz’s full Witness Statement here.
Amid and Sanaz 14 July 2023 Witness Statements For a summary of Amid and Sanaz’s story, you can read our feature article here. Background Amid 1. My full name is Aliasghar Fathollahi, but I am known as Amid Fathi. I was born in 1974 in Hamedan [western Iran] into a family that isn’t very religious but adheres to religious principles. I was the only son, and our family was relatively well-off. But at the age of 21, I developed a drink problem, which lasted for around eight years, before I became a Christian, and had a bad effect on me and my life. 2. But in August 2004, some of my friends talked to me about a part of the Bible – the Psalms – and after that conversation I became eager to know more about Christianity, and started investigating it. 3. The tomb of [biblical characters] Mordechai and Esther is in Hamedan, and I went to the bookstore next to the tomb to look for a Bible, and the shop owner had a second-hand copy. Until then, I didn’t even know that the four Gospels were part of the Bible, but every day I began to diligently read the Bible, though I didn’t understand the meaning of many passages and didn’t know any Christians to whom I could ask my questions. 4. Gradually, I began to consider myself a Christian, but people around me mockingly said: “To become a Christian, you’d have to change your blood!” But after a while I met some other Christians, and we used to study the Bible and pray together in Luna Park in Hamedan. They had also recently become Christians and didn’t know much about Christianity. And though I considered myself a Christian during that time, it was two years later, in 2006, when I became a Christian with more knowledge and certainty, and gave my heart completely to Jesus Christ. 5. I also married my wife Sanaz in 2006, and in 2010 she also became a Christian and we had a son named Danial. When we were first married, I worked in my father’s store, which he owned, but after he sold it I worked in the accounting department at the Iran Khodro car dealership owned by my sister’s husband. Emmanuel Church 6. When our son was around one year old, someone introduced us to the Persian-speaking Emmanuel Church in Vanak Square, Tehran. My wife and I used to leave Hamedan for Karaj [next to Tehran] every Friday at 5am, and leave our son at my sister’s house in Karaj. Then we would go to Emmanuel Church in Tehran. The church had a Sunday school for children, but only for children over three years old, so that’s why we couldn’t take Danial to church. 7. During Holy Week that year, the church held a meeting every day, and so we went to Tehran every day at 5 in the morning and returned home at 11 at night. The pastor of the church was surprised by our enthusiasm, and how we attended the church every day. House-church in Hamedan 8. Since 2010, the Ministry of Intelligence had asked the church to inform them of the national ID-card numbers of members, so they could take down their names. But they forgot to enter our names in the file, which worked in our favour. 9. But in the spring of 2012, the Ministry of Intelligence banned Persian-speaking Christians from entering Emmanuel Church, so we could no no longer participate in the services, and we were very sad about this. 10. A month after Emmanuel Church closed, we began to hold weekly house-church meetings in our home. We talked to many people about Christ, and gave them Bibles. Everything we had learned in the church, we taught to other Christian converts. And day by day, the number of members of our home-church increased, and soon we had to divide them into three groups. 11. In 2013, we were finally baptised in Erbil in Iraq by a Christian friend we had met online. Arrest 12. For a while, I had a feeling that we would be arrested soon, and it was for this reason that we didn’t hold a Christmas party in 2015. We had also hidden some items, like our passports, baptism certificates and computer hard drive, which contained information about the names of church members, and audio files of sermons, worship songs, and lessons about the principles of the Christian faith. 13. Then, on 26 December 2015, some of the other leaders of our [house-]church came to our home to discuss various issues and plans. We prayed together, ate the food that my wife had cooked, and then everyone went home, apart from one couple and their child, who stayed at our house. We didn’t go to bed until 3.30 in the morning. 14. Then, between 6.30 and 7am, I woke up to the repeated sound of the doorbell. I was sleepy because of going to bed late and didn’t answer the intercom; I just went to the door and opened it. 15. And on the other side, there was an agent with a camera, and he entered our home, along with two other male officers and two female officers. One of the agents said: “We are agents of the Ministry of Intelligence. Aliasghar Fathi?” “Yes,” I said. He said: “Is Mrs Sanaz Karami home?” I said: “Yes, she’s inside.” He showed me a piece of paper, and said: “This is the search warrant for your home.” He showed it very quickly, so I couldn’t see what it said. 16. I was very shocked. But at the same time, because I’d had the feeling we would soon be arrested, I said to one of the agents: “It’s time.” And the agent said: “Yes, it’s time!” One of the agents had a gun, and he showed it to me. I didn’t understand why at that moment, but later I realised that he wanted to scare me. Another of them carried two suitcases, and my name was written on one, and Sanaz’s name was written on the other. 17. When the agents entered our home, I asked them to wait for me to inform my wife and tell her to get dressed. But the two female agents entered the room with me. “Wake up, Sanaz!” I said. “They are from the Ministry of Intelligence.” Sanaz 18. My name is Sanaz Karami. I was born in October 1985 in Hamedan. I have a high-school diploma and at the time of our arrest I was an accounting student. 19. As we had gone to bed late, when my husband woke me I could barely open my eyes. I saw two dark shapes standing next to my husband, and as I opened and closed my eyes, I saw that they were two women in black chadors, and they said: “Miss, put on your hijab! Put on your hijab!” I was shocked, and put on a cardigan and head covering. 20. One of the female agents said: “Go stand next to your husband; we have to search your room!” They searched the whole room, and even ripped the pillows and took out all the feathers. “Why did you empty the pillows?” I asked. The agent said: “The pillows were heavy, so we had to search them.” They also emptied our shampoo bottles, and even rummaged through the frozen peas, beans and vegetables. Their intention wasn’t only to search the house, but to torture us mentally and emotionally. Amid 21. Our guests were sleeping in my son’s room. I knocked on the door and said: “Brother Reza, are you awake? Wake up! They’re here from the Ministry of Intelligence! I apologise; please go home.” I was praying in my heart that the agents would let them go home. One of the agents went out, and called someone; then he returned and said: “Your guests can go home.” I was very happy about this, and when I was saying goodbye to them, I said softly into Reza’s ear: “Inform the others about this incident.” 22. Later, we found out that the guests had told the agents: “We will get a taxi and make our way home ourselves.” But one of the agents had said: “No! no! Not at all! We have caused you inconvenience; we’ll take you there ourselves.” Then, when they had reached their home, the agents had got out of the car and said: “We came to check your home.” And then they showed them their warrant, searched their home, and arrested them. 23. Two months before the arrest, we had been invited to Turkey to participate in a Christian conference. To show that he knew a lot about us, the agent with the camera said: “Did you have a good time in Turkey?” I said: “Yes, I had a good time.” 24. The officers mercilessly searched everything in our home, which put psychological pressure on us. They even threw all our kitchen utensils on the floor, and sifted through the beans we had, and the freezer and refrigerator. They seized our Bible, Christian books, and non-Christian books such as novels, as well as my wife’s cross necklace, which was made out of gold, an artwork depicting a cross, our Christmas trees, and my son’s tablet. 25. My son was crying profusely and wanted his tablet and toys. It was very painful to see my son’s fear and tears. Sanaz 26. I asked them to return my son’s tablet. I had installed an application from a Christian ministry on it, but I told them: “There is nothing else related to Christianity on this tablet, except this application.” But they didn’t agree. 27. “Why are you taking that?” I asked when an agent took away one of my son’s toys: a Santa in a snow globe. He said: “It’s a symbol of Christianity, and should be confiscated!” I was upset because of their disrespectful behaviour and strange and cruel way of searching, and I criticised them for it and had an argument with one of them. My husband Amid said: “Let it go! Now isn’t the time! Let them do whatever they like, as they won’t pay attention to anything we say anyway, and we can’t do anything about it.” 28. We had three Christmas trees, and the agent took them out of the cupboard and said: “They haven’t got just one or two, but three trees! Now we’ll take you and give you a lecture so that from now on you celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad!” Amid 29. My wife Sanaz’s spirit is stronger than mine, and she was sitting in the corner of the living room, holding her head in her hands and praying. I sat next to her and we prayed together. Then, when I raised my head for a moment, I saw that the agent with the camera was also filming us praying. 30. They searched our home from around 6.30 in the morning until noon. I had bought many Bibles and Christian books from Tehran, which I had packed away and put in a corner of the yard, and covered with a cloth. The agents didn’t search the yard, so they didn’t find them. 31. Sanaz was upset when she saw how cruelly and strangely the agents searched our home, and criticised their behaviour. But I told her: “Please don’t say anything! We can’t do anything about it!” 32. When they wanted to take us away, I noticed another agent standing outside, who hadn’t entered our house at all. This officer called someone, and said: “Haji, they have too many things! They won’t fit in the car! Send another van.” 33. Our house had two floors. We lived on the first floor, and my parents lived on the second. My parents are old. My father was about 80 years old at that time. Some time before our arrest, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. She had undergone surgery, and was undergoing chemotherapy, so she wasn’t in a good physical or mental condition. On the day of our arrest, my parents cried a lot, and asked the agents very sadly: “Sir, where are you taking them? What will happen to them?” The officers didn’t answer their questions, though one of them eventually lied: “In the afternoon or tomorrow, they’ll return home.” Then he said to my son: “Don’t worry, your mum will come back soon and clean the house.” My father, mother and son were crying, and mine and my wife’s hearts were full of pain. 34. I asked one of the agents for permission to say goodbye to my mother and father, and after we had done so they handcuffed my wife and me, and put us into a van, and put the suitcases, full of our things, into a car. Sanaz and I were in shock, and as soon as we started driving, an agent told us: “You aren’t allowed to talk to each other!” After we had passed about one or two streets, they put blindfolds over our eyes. Sanaz 35. On the day of our arrest, I was very sad. My son Danial was small – only about four and a half years old. He was afraid of the behaviour of the agents, and was crying, and now he was going to be left without us, and had to stay with his grandparents. I asked the agent to let me hold my son for a minute before leaving, but he wouldn’t allow it! Amid 36. We drove for about 20 minutes. Then we had to get out of the car, and they took off our blindfolds. They had taken us to the intelligence centre on Honarestan Street. We knew the place, because it is very well known in Hamedan and isn’t hidden; it is clearly visible to passersby. When we got out, one of them said: “Separate them!” and they undid our handcuffs. I had 50 thousand tomans [approx. $50] in my pocket, and I gave it to Sanaz. Then Sanaz and I were separated. They took me in one car, and Sanaz in another. Detention 37. This time, the car drove for between half an hour and 45 minutes, but it seemed to me that they were just driving around aimlessly, so that I wouldn’t be able to guess where we were. Finally, I heard the sound of a big gate opening, and the car went through and stopped on the other side. 38. An agent told me: “Get out.” Then he took my hand and guided me. As I was blindfolded, I went to the right or to the left as the agent told me. Then we entered a room, and he undid my handcuffs and asked me to remove my blindfold, take off my clothes, and put on my prison shirt and trousers. So I took off my clothes and put them in a bag, then put on the new clothes. 39. The agent blindfolded me again, and took me into another room. “Get completely naked,” he said. I asked: “Why?” He said: “The doctor wants to examine you to see if you have a problem or not.” So I got naked, and heard someone say: “Turn around; let me see if you have a problem.” I turned around, and told him about a medical condition that I had. Then the doctor said: “You can put on your clothes.” 40. The agent took me into a small cell. There was a short wall at one end of the cell, with a hole behind it for going to the toilet, but even if you squatted on the other side of the wall your head was still clearly visible. Next to the toilet hole, there was a tap attached to the wall, and a plastic jug [for cleaning yourself]. There was no sink, but there was a basic shower head. So you had to drink water and wash your hands from either the tap or the shower. Those were the only options. 41. Although it was winter, they had increased the temperature of the cell to probably around 45 degrees celsius. I was breathing hard, and felt suffocated. But even more irritating than this were the very bright light from the very strong projectors hanging from the ceiling – which was on 24 hours a day – and the extremely loud sound of the ventilator, which wasn’t visible. At least I could use the shower or tap to get water to combat the heat, but there was nothing I could do against the terrible light and loud sound. 42. With the excruciating conditions in the cell – from intense heat to strong light and constant terrible noise – I couldn’t sleep. I became confused and forgetful. After two or three days, I had forgotten so many things. I had taught the Bible for a few years by then, but during those days I could only remember one Christian worship song, and I sang it. 43. My cell was like hell. I thought to myself: “I wish they would beat me and break my bones, but not torture my soul!” I wished to be taken for interrogation and for even an hour to be able to breathe properly, and to be in a place with normal light and no noise. 44. At 8pm on the first day of my arrest, I was taken to the duty judge, Yousef Almasi, and he issued a warrant for my detention. He didn’t read the accusations against me. Instead, he asked me: “Do you know why you were arrested?” I said: “Christianity.” “Aren’t you sorry?” he asked. I said: “No.” After issuing the warrant, I was taken to a room for taking mugshots and fingerprints. I asked the employee there: “What is written in my file?” He said: “He has issued a warrant for you, stating that you are to be kept under their supervision.” Sanaz 45. At the moment when they had separated us, Amid had given me the money and said: “We don’t know what will happen, so you should keep hold of this.” Then he gave me the money and we parted ways. They put the handcuffs and blindfold on me again, and put me in the car. Then they drove me around a little, and then took me to an unknown place, but even when they took me out of the car, they didn’t remove my blindfold. A man came and took hold of the chain between my two handcuffs, and pulled it. I was afraid I would fall because I couldn’t see, so I pulled back against him, but he told me to walk. I said: “I can’t see anything, so how can I walk?” He said: “Shut up! I am telling you to come!” Fortunately I could just see my feet, so when he pulled me I didn’t fall. I knew that if I did fall, those people wouldn’t help me; they would kick me. Because of how cruelly they behaved, I remember those moments well. 46. When I entered, my bag and other personal belongings were taken from me. The female officer said: “Take anything off that is of value.” I started to remove my cross necklace, and she pulled it from my neck and said: “Is this gold?” I said: “Yes, it’s gold.” And she said mockingly: “Yeah, sure it is!” I said: “It is gold; why do you think it isn’t?” She gave it to the officer who was next to her, and told her: “Write down that it’s gold, so that these beggar Christians won’t complain we haven’t done our job properly! Write it down for her.” She also added the money to my file, along with my gold cross necklace and chain. In the end, they took away everything I had. I went inside with only the coat, headcovering and trousers that I was wearing. A little further on, they gave me some other clothes to wear. They were just ordinary grey trousers and a grey shirt, and after they took me to the cell, they gave me a black bin bag and told me to take off all my clothes and put them in that bag. I wore glasses because my eyes are weak, and the officer even told me: “Give me your glasses. You must even put your underwear in this bag, leave it by the door, and wear these other clothes until I come to take your belongings.” 47. It was 1am by the time they took me to Almasi, the duty judge. “Do you know why they arrested you?” he asked. “Yes, I know,” I said. He said: “Do you still stand by what you said and consider yourself a Christian?” I said: “Yes, I’m a Christian.” He asked again: “So you don’t regret it? And you don’t want to express your regret?” I replied: “No, I don’t regret it, so I don’t want to express regret.” The judge lowered his head and wrote something on the paper. Then he turned to me and said: “It’s like you still don’t understand where you are! Soon you’ll understand where you are, and you won’t answer like this again!” Then he wrote an order, and then they took my fingerprints and mugshot, and after doing this I was taken to my cell. 48. In the cell, a lamp was always on. There was a constant horrible noise, and it was extremely hot. There were no windows. Once, the heat of the cell was so great that I couldn’t bear it and felt I couldn’t breathe. Feeling like I was suffocating, I knocked on the cell door and shouted: “I’m suffocating! Open the door! I want to go out!” The guard said: “No! Get used to it!” I was very upset and said: “If you don’t open the door, I’ll knock on the cell door so hard that you’ll have to open it!” After a few minutes of knocking, she opened the door and took me to the yard. I was there for about a quarter of an hour, and the fresh air helped my breathing return to normal. 49. During my detention, whenever the officer wanted to enter my cell and open the door, first she would knock on the door and tell me to turn around and put on the blindfold. So I would put on the blindfold and turn around. Then she would open the door and give me the bag with my clothes in, and tell me to put them and the blindfold on, and then she would take me back to the interrogation room, where no-one else was, and no-one would come. Then, a few minutes later, she would take me back to the cell, and again tell me to change back into my prison clothes. She repeated this process several times a day. The reason they kept doing this was mostly psychological, because I couldn’t see anything, as my glasses prescription is so high. They took my glasses because they wanted to upset me, and they repeated this whole process many times. Sometimes they took me to the room for interrogation and left me there for hours, and no-one would come. Interrogations 50. After my initial interrogation, they left me in my cell for two days. That means they didn’t take me for interrogation from 28 December until 30 December. But on Wednesday 30 December 2015, at 5 in the morning, they gave me a piece of bread and a piece of cheese, and, after I had eaten, they took me for interrogation. I had different interrogators. On one day, different people would come at different times. For example, once a “psychologist” came, and another time a “student” came for their research. But I had one main interrogator, and everyone seemed to have to answer to him. 51. Once, one of the interrogators asked me: “Do you have anything to say?” I said: “I want to see my usual interrogator.” Then my interrogator came in, angrily, and started swearing: “Shut up, you such and such! When you were doing these dirty things, you didn’t think of what you are, who you are, where you are! Now you have to answer for it!” Then they took me to the cell again. 52. Another time, the interrogator asked me a question and I didn’t answer him. I said: “I want to make a call.” The interrogator said: “It’s like you forgot where you are!” “I just want to call my family, my child,” I said. The interrogator said: “When you were doing these things, you didn’t think of your child. Now you are thinking of him, and you want to call him!” I remained silent. 53. The interrogator asked the question again, and I said: “I’m not writing anything.” He said: “Well, at least write on this paper that you don’t want to answer.” He put some questions in front of me, but I didn’t answer any of them. The interrogator said: “You still don’t know! You don’t understand! Once you’ve stayed here for a few days, you’ll understand what place this is!” Then they returned me to my cell again. 54. I was very worried, missed my son, and cried non-stop, and the guard who was there kept knocking on the door, telling me to be quiet. Once, she opened the door and said: “Why are you crying so much? I’ve got a headache [from your crying]. Haven’t your tears dried out?” I said: “I want to talk to my son on the phone, but they won’t allow me.” The guard said: “Well, write down whatever they tell you so that they’ll allow you to call.” I said: “They say I should betray the others, but I’m not a betrayer. I won’t write anything!” 55. They took me again for questioning, put the questions in front of me, and told me to start writing. But I just wrote “I won’t answer” after all the questions. “Why don’t you answer?” said the interrogator. “I have nothing to say,” I said. “I just want to talk to my son.” The interrogator said: “We brought another lady here from your church. She has a small child like you. I told her: ‘Write the answers and then go see your child.’ She said: ‘I entrusted my child to Jesus Christ.’ What did you teach these people? What kind of response is that? Who else will take care of your children? The family of one of the people we arrested said they wouldn’t look after that person’s child. They left the child in the middle of the hall. That child had a seizure and is now in the hospital. Where is Christ? Tell Jesus to take care of that child!” 56. The interrogator intended to scare me with these false stories and weaken my spirit. I was restless, and crying for my child. The interrogator said: “Don’t cry! Write whatever we say and then you can go!” I said: “I have nothing to say.” 57. For my first two days in detention, they constantly said: “Don’t you want to talk to your child? Don’t you want to see how your child is doing? What kind of mother are you that you don’t think of your child at all? Does this mean that you don’t like to talk to your child?” I said that there is no mother who doesn’t like to talk to her child. He said: “Then why don’t you want to talk to him?” I said: “I would like to talk to him, but you won’t allow me to.” He went out, and when he came back in he said: “You can talk to your child for two minutes.” 58. When I called, my husband’s family picked up the phone and cried when they heard my voice and said: “Where are you? Since the day you left, your child has only been crying and won’t stop!” I could hear Danial crying. As a mother, there was nothing I could do to calm my child and it was very painful. I talked to my son for about two to three minutes. Hearing my son crying made me feel worse and I said to myself that I wish I hadn’t called. 59. After I ended the call, the interrogator said: “How are you? Where is your Jesus now? You heard your child crying; now calm him down!” I said: “I didn’t do anything bad or wrong!” He said: “You changed the thinking of a generation, and you say I didn’t do anything!” “I didn’t do anything wrong!” I said again. “I just want to get out of here. I want to go to my son.” The interrogator said: “When you were gathering people and spreading Zionist evangelical Christianity, you forgot that you were born a Muslim and became a Christian, and that you made others convert to Christianity too!” The interrogator threatened me: “The complainants in your case want to set your house on fire. We have put a guard outside your house, and at least for now we have not allowed them to do as they want.” 60. He put a number of sheets of paper in front of me and said: “I’ll say the names, and you say their surnames.” I said: “Believe me, I don’t know the surnames of any of them!” He said: “Well, that’s no problem. You tell me the names, and I’ll tell you their surnames and you can write them down. We know everyone and everything about you!” I said: “Then why did you bring me here, if you already know everything?” I didn’t give them any more information than they already had. 61. The interrogator wanted to make us suspicious about each other and cause divisions in our relationships. The interrogator took me, blindfolded and in handcuffs, to stand outside the door of the interrogation room so that I could hear the confessions of others and be provoked to stop resisting and also confess. 62. Once the interrogator said: “Why don’t you eat? Are you on hunger strike? I said: “What are you talking about? I just can’t eat! You expect me to sit and eat a plate of rice and stew in this situation!” The interrogator said: “Then eat one spoonful so we can be sure you aren’t on hunger strike.” So as usual I said a prayer of thanksgiving for the food, and ate a spoonful. He said: “You are praying for the food? We didn’t put anything in it!” I said: “I don’t care if you have put anything in it or not; I always pray for my food.” “Do you still believe in Jesus Christ?” the interrogator asked. I said: “Jesus Christ is my heart. Take out my heart if you can!” But when I returned to my cell, I was afraid of what I had said and said to myself: “They might kill me because of what I said! What could I do for my child then?” 63. I was interrogated every day, apart from two, and they all followed a similar pattern. They would give me a piece of bread and cheese at around 5 in the morning, and then an hour later they would take me for interrogation, and sometimes the interrogation would continue until midnight. Sometimes the interrogator would interrogate me for several hours, then leave me alone in the room and later come back again. Sometimes the interrogator would interrogate me continuously for hours, or one interrogator would leave and then another would come and ask the same questions. 64. One day the interrogator shouted and insulted me, and I took off my blindfold and said: “I won’t wear a blindfold anymore, and I won’t let you talk to me like that!” “Shut up and sit down!” the interrogator said. Then he cursed me very badly. I said: “I won’t sit down! I won’t even wear a blindfold! Whoever wants to can come and blindfold me!” But from that day on, during all the interrogations, I wouldn’t wear one. Then, one day, a new interrogator came and said: “You made your interrogator nervous, so now I’ll be your interrogator!” 65. In the interrogation room, God strengthened me to bravely resist and defend my rights. But when I returned to my cell, I would cry for my son. Amid 66. The number and length of the interrogations were too much for me. I was blindfolded during every interrogation, and had to sit facing the wall. I had at least four interrogators. One person was in charge of the entire interrogation team and he introduced himself as “Mr Hosseini”. Sometimes they would take me to the interrogation room, and I would be left alone in the room for about three or four hours, and then someone would come and say: “Haji isn’t here; go back to your cell and come back later.” Sometimes the interrogator would ask just one or two questions, then leave the room and return two or three hours later and continue. All this waiting made me restless. Sometimes the interrogator would interrogate me for about four hours, and when I didn’t give him the answer he wanted, he would tell the guard: “Take him to his cell! It’s like he hasn’t got it yet and doesn’t know where he is! Otherwise he wouldn’t have answered like that!” 67. But of course the atmosphere in the cell was also very bad and so at the same time I also in some way preferred to be in the interrogation room, which at least provided a break from my cell, and I was able to talk to someone and have a few hours away from the intense heat, strong light, and horrible noise of my cell. Once, they didn’t take me for interrogation for about two days, and in this way they wanted to put me under psychological pressure. 68. During the interrogations, they always faced me against the wall, and their table was behind me. The first time they allowed me to remove my blindfold was to talk to a student about Islam, who tried to convince me to return but couldn’t. 69. They used the technique of good interrogator, bad interrogator. The bad interrogator would shout threats and insults, and one of them threatened to rape a Christian lady who was a member of our church. But I didn’t give in to their threats. Once, an interrogator said: “You have many complainants! The families you talked to about Christianity want to go and burn down yours and your parents’ house! Our officer is guarding your house; if you don’t cooperate, we’ll tell our guard not to continue, and the complainants will have the opportunity to harm your family!” This “good” interrogator was trying to convince me to cooperate on the proviso that no harm would come to me and my family. 70. I was active in Alcoholics Anonymous [AA], and in the detention centre, my interrogators told me: “Write for us about the structure of those groups – what it’s like there, what they do, what their programme is, and what steps they take.” Then, one day they took me to a room and turned on the camera and asked me to talk about what I had written, and so I did. Then they put a piece of paper in front of me and told me to write down that I repented and declared that I wanted to return to Islam. But I refused, and they let it go. 71. The interrogations weren’t limited to the interrogation room. Sometimes they even asked me to fill in the interrogation sheets in the cell. They said: “Write about your life; write about where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or about the structure of the 12-step AA groups.” One night, on the occasion of the prophet of Islam’s birthday, they brought a magazine and gave me a 2,000 toman note [$2] and an apple. I wrote on the note with the pen I had for writing on the interrogation papers: “Today is Friday, the 14th day that I am in the solitary confinement of the Ministry of Intelligence, and I am looking to God and the future. God is my salvation. Everything is against me, but I believe that God is with me.” After my release, I took that banknote out of the detention centre with me, and it is a very dear souvenir for me. A photograph of Amid’s annotated banknote. 72. It became clear from the information they had that the agents had put a listening device in our house and had been listening to our conversations, and I remembered a day when we had gone hiking with church members and a car had parked in front of our house and some people had tried to enter. Our neighbour, who had noticed it and had written down the car’s licence plate number, called the police, and an hour later they had come to our neighbourhood, but by then the car had gone. When I got back home, I went to the police station, and then the criminal investigation branch, with the licence plate number of the car, but I didn’t really get an answer and they just told me to go and that “we’ll call you”. Really, they just cut me off. And when we were arrested, I became sure that those people had been from the Ministry of Intelligence and had probably come to install the listening device in our home. 73. During my detention, a bad and strange thing happened to me. On the 13th or 14th day of my detention, at night, the guard gave me a stack of paper and two pens, and said: “Haji says that if you filled every sheet and wrote about yourself and your group, it still wouldn’t be enough! Confess and see what we can do for your case!” I said: “Tell your Haji I have nothing to say. These are my friends! We have known each other for years! I have nothing to tell you.” The guard said: “Is this your final decision?” I said: “Yes. I have nothing more to say.” The next morning I prayed as usual, and felt fine. But then at noon, they brought me rice and minced-meat stew, and after I had eaten half of it I began to feel sick. My heart was pounding, and I felt like it was about to be ripped out. I put my hand on my heart and prayed. Although I had become forgetful before this incident, at that moment I remembered the verses of the Bible and the promises of God, and I asked God for healing and health, and after a while my heart rate returned to normal. The guard never usually came to my cell at that time of the day, but suddenly he opened the door and said: “What happened?” I said: “Nothing special.” Then I realised that there must be a camera in my cell, and that I was always being monitored. 74. At first I thought that what had happened might have been just due to my mental and physical condition, but in the end I concluded that something must have been put in my food because I had also become extraordinarily sensitive and emotional. Just by hearing the word “you”, I would start crying. This scared me, and I concluded that they wanted to kill me, or perhaps had put something in my food to make me have a heart attack and die, and make my death look normal. 75. The interrogator had asked me several times: “Do you want to talk to your son on the phone?” And I had said: “No.” The interrogator had said: “Your child is sick; don’t you want to talk to him?” I had answered: “It doesn’t matter; God gave him to us; God will take care of him.” But that day, when the interrogator said, “Do you want to talk to your son?”, I said: “Yes.” 76. Before the conversation, and even during my conversation with Danial, I was crying. And I wasn’t that type of person at all, and I realised that they must have put something in my food that had a very bad effect on my heart rate and emotions. In those days, Sanaz was temporarily released on bail. So, after talking with Danial, Sanaz took the phone and I also talked with her. Temporary release Sanaz 77. The day before I was released, they put me in front of a camera and gave me some text to read out. But I refused to comply. And every time I said something other than what they wanted, they would stop filming and say: “No! Don’t say that! Say it again, but this time as it is written!” But each time I answered in the way that I wanted. So the filming had to be stopped and repeated several times, and when they saw that I still wouldn’t do as they wanted, they finally gave me another sheet of text, denying my faith, and told me to read it out. They said: “You have to say the shahada [Islamic statement of faith] and return to Islam, so that your case is complete.” But I refused, threw the paper to one side, and said: “I won’t do this under any circumstances! I won’t say the shahada and I won’t return to Islam!” The main interrogator, who saw that insisting wasn’t going to work, said: “Let her go; there’s no need to film her saying the shahada.” So they turned off the camera and took me back to solitary confinement. 78. On the last day I was interrogated, the interrogator said: “Make a call so that your bail can be arranged, and then you can go home after we have taken you to the court.” Then they took me to court, and a bail of 30 million tomans [approx. $30,000] was issued for me. But they wouldn’t accept my father’s property deed, and lied that the document had a debt attached to it. My father told them: “There is nothing wrong with my document!” They said: “Sir, the registry office told us that your document has a debt attached to it, so if you like you can go to the registry office and bring back proof from there that there is no debt.” When I had arrived at the court, the officer had told me: “Your father’s house document has a debt attached to it, so they’ll send you to the central prison.” There wasn’t really any debt or problem with the document, but I think the interrogator wanted to send me to the central prison to scare me. 79. Then we went to Hamedan Central Prison, which was outside the city. When we entered the area where they processed prisoners and their belongings, they asked me what crime I had committed, and I said: “Christianity.” Then the officer who had accompanied me elbowed me in the side, and whispered to me that I mustn’t speak. The first officer said: “I didn’t hear what you said.” But the officer next to me immediately answered: “No, no, no, she was part of the political protests after the 2009 presidential election. Write that down!” And they didn’t allow me to say anything more; they just took me inside. 80. But at around 2pm that same day, I was released from the prison, after my father finally managed to submit the deed of his house for my bail. While leaving the prison, I explained to all the officers who had heard it being claimed that my crime was “political” that I had been arrested because I had become a Christian. I wanted to state this fact clearly, so that the Ministry of Intelligence couldn’t falsely tell the world that “we don’t imprison anyone for their beliefs”. 81. I had been detained for seven days when, on 2 January 2016, I was released on bail. 82. After being released, I went to the house of the guests who had been in our house on the day of our arrest. Another member of our church, who had also been detained, was there and said: “I heard Amid’s voice in the detention centre, and it sounded like he wasn’t doing well.” When I heard this, my worries about Amid increased and I fainted. I was afraid that they might have harmed my husband, or even killed him. 83. The next day, a person from the Ministry of Intelligence called me and said: “Why did you walk around and go from home to home, looking for the other members? You have no right to go anywhere! Stay in your house!” But I didn’t pay attention to his threat. Blank cheques for freedom 84. After I was released on bail, I visited several families to find out how they were doing. I went to several places to find a lawyer, but most weren’t willing to represent “security” cases. They said: “These cases are full of trouble and failure, and it’s impossible for us to win!” The only lawyer who agreed to take on the case wanted a high salary, but my husband’s uncle said: “Don’t bother! It’s obvious he can’t do anything to help; he just wants to take your money and later say, ‘I tried my best but unfortunately it didn’t work.’” 85. After a few days, the Ministry of Intelligence summoned me by phone. They wanted me to go back to the Ministry of Intelligence centre on Honarestan Street, which is known as “Prison Corner”. Their headquarters was there, and I had to go there every time I was summoned. When I arrived, the interrogator said: “We didn’t release you to run around looking for this and that! You’re only temporarily free and have to wait for your trial! You and your home are under surveillance! We summoned you to tell you that you and your husband did a lot of bad things, but we want to do something for you due to Islamic mercy.” I replied: “You don’t care about us. Why do you say ‘mercy’? What is it that makes you feel compassion for us?” The interrogator said: “We too are Iranians, so we are compatriots, even if we don’t have any relation to each other at all. We know that you were deceived by the Zionists and became victims, and we want to fix this situation for you.” 86. I asked the interrogator what he expected from us and what I should do. He said: “You don’t need to do anything; just sign your name under these two blank 100 million [approx. $100,000] promissory notes, and we’ll give them to your husband to sign as well.” I said: “My husband may not want to sign them!” He said: “We’ll make an appointment for you and your husband to talk together, and make a decision. Tomorrow, I want to present your husband’s case to the court. If you come back here tomorrow at 7am, with the promissory notes, we can do something for him. But know that if you don’t sign them, we’ll keep your husband in custody for as long as we want! We are completely independent, so no-one can object to our decisions! We can use the excuse that his case hasn’t been completed, and keep your husband as long as we want! So come tomorrow and reach an agreement with your husband.” And he emphasised that: “You shouldn’t tell anyone about this.” 87. So the next day I went back again and saw Amid for the first time since the arrest, and we agreed that we had no choice. If we didn’t give them the signed promissory notes, my husband would stay detained, so we agreed to their illegal offer. ” Amid 88. The day before I was released, the interrogator from the Ministry of Intelligence called my wife and asked for the 100 million promissory notes in exchange for sending my case to the prosecutor’s office. The interrogator stressed that “this issue should be kept between us, and no-one should know about it, except you and your wife”. The interrogator warned: “If you raise this issue with the judge, we’ll deny it and keep your case open, and you’ll remain in custody. We want to be reassured that you won’t continue your Christian activities once you are released. If you start your activities again, we’ll arrest you, and this time we’ll take you to the prison because the promissory notes show you owe a lot of money! Sanaz 89. The next day, at 7 o’clock in the morning, I signed the two promissory notes and handed them over. Amid also signed them, and the investigator sent his case to the court to determine his bail and arrange for his temporary release. After this, I returned home. Release Amid A photograph of Amid on the day of his release. 90. On 13 January 2016, they took me to the court, before the judge, and he set a bail of 30 million tomans [$30,000] for me. In addition to my bail, which was covered by the property deed of my mother’s house, the Ministry of Intelligence secretly and illegally took into their possession the two 100 million promissory notes signed by me and my wife. Then, finally, after 18 days’ detention in solitary confinement, I was temporarily released and returned home. 91. After our release, the agents were watching us. We didn’t feel safe, even in our home. We couldn’t talk easily, or even have marital relations. Everywhere we went, they deliberately showed themselves to us to convey the message that “we’re watching you”. 92. We were informed through one of the female members of the church, who had been our guest on the day of our arrest, that on that day, between 6.30 and 7am on 27 December, the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence had gone to around 40 homes of the members of our house-church and arrested most of those who had had responsibility for doing any activities within the church. They searched the homes of those who were home – around 70 per cent of the members – and the rest were summoned by phone. 93. Some of the members with small children weren’t even allowed to contact their families to hand over their children to them, and had to leave their children with their neighbours. 94. Most of them were released on bail after a week of detention. But they threatened and scared every one of them, and before their release the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence forced each of them to sit in front of a video camera, and gave them a text to memorise and confess in front of the camera. They were also told that they should say that they are no longer Christians, say the shahada, and declare that they had become Muslim again. Some of the members refused, but some felt they had no choice. They also demanded certain commitments from all the members, the content of which I don’t know. 95. The members of the church had resisted very well in the first days of their detention – I could even hear some of them during their interrogations – but after a few days, they became very scared. The interrogators had said to one of the ladies of the church whose husband wasn’t a Christian: “Because you became a Christian, your marriage is now invalid.” They told some of the other members: “The neighbours threw your children out of their houses and said, ‘We won’t keep these children!’” Even worse than that, they told another member: “Your child is sick and dying in the hospital.” 96. However, the Ministry of Intelligence only found out about the groups our house-church had in Hamedan, while the other house-church groups we had in Karaj and other cities weren’t exposed. 97. The Ministry of Intelligence regularly called Sanaz and summoned her following our release. I went with Sanaz on two occasions. On the first occasion, the interrogator asked her: “Why didn’t you come alone?” Then the second time he said there had been no reason for the summons: “We just wanted to ask how you are doing.” They had stolen our peace. Whenever they called us, we were very stressed about what they might want from us now. It was a very chaotic situation. In the first days after our release, we didn’t even dare to pray at home. Leaving the country 98. After a few weeks, we stopped being so scared and started to pray together again, but we decided to flee Iran before our court hearing. At first, we thought we would be banned from leaving the country, and wanted to smuggle ourselves out. But the smuggler we found didn’t answer our call. So, after praying, we decided to buy plane tickets to Turkey. We said goodbye to our close relatives, and fled from Iran on 8 March 2016, and arrived in Turkey. Verdict 99. Two months later, the summons for Sanaz and me to attend the court hearing was sent to Sanaz’s father’s house. On 12 May 2016, our trial was held in Branch 1 of the Hamedan Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abbas Ghaderi-Nasab. Forty-two members of our church were accused as part of the same case. After some time, they sent the court verdict to Sanaz’s father’s house. Our charge was “propaganda against the Islamic Republic regime in favour of hostile groups”. The judge had issued a one-year suspended prison sentence for 25 of the members – mine and Sanaz’s sentences weren’t suspended – and some of the others were fined, or had to make certain commitments. 100. Only one of the members appealed. Except for that one person, the rest of the members didn’t appeal, but because of this one person I think the whole case slowed. And all the members had to submit bail – some brought a borrowed document belonging to their family members, and others brought money, though it was really hard for some of them to get documents or cash. In the end, they kept the case open for a whole year under the pretext that “we are dealing with it”. And at the end I don’t know what happened to the person who appealed. Maybe she was acquitted; I don’t know. We weren’t informed. 101. Since we were out of the country, they confiscated the documents submitted for our bail. Sanaz’s father had left the deed of his house as collateral for Sanaz. For me, the deed of my mother’s house had been given as my collateral. Sanaz 102. The Ministry of Intelligence scared my father and said: “If Amid and Sanaz don’t return, we’ll put your house up for auction!” So my father paid 30 million tomans [$30,000] to release his house deed. But in the end they wanted even more money, so my father had to pay them even more to secure the release of his house deed. 103. My father had heart disease, so at the same time as he was going to the hospital for treatment, he had to go to court to release his house deed. It was a very bad situation, and there was nothing we could do about it, which really upset me. Amid 104. When we came to Turkey, our families were banned from leaving the country for 18 months; they took away the passports of my father, mother and sister at the airport, and they weren’t allowed to travel. They treated them very badly. They were summoned several times to the Ministry of Intelligence in Hamedan. They were constantly calling and insulting them. My sister was very scared. Sanaz’s father was also constantly summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence. They said: “We had mercy on Amid and Sanaz and temporarily released them. Tell them to come back and introduce themselves. We are an Islamic Republic; if they don’t come back, we can put them in a sack and bring them back! But if we have to go to get them ourselves, know that their sentence will be death!” My parents were scared by these threats, and our families were very worried about us. 105. Even though many years have passed, our son Danial still remembers all the bitter memories of our detention. He became very afraid of being left alone because of our arrest. We couldn’t leave him alone even for a few minutes. For example, when we went to the grocery store, I would ask him to stay behind but he would cry and say: “I’m afraid that they’ll take you and you won’t come back, or something will happen to you!” When he was younger, even when he was playing in his room he would keep calling me and his mother to make sure we were home… It’s a little better now. In 2019, our second son, Benjamin, was born in Turkey. A recent photograph of Amid, Sanaz and their two boys, Danial and Benjamin.
Pastor transferred to prison 1,000 miles from home and family 10 July 2023 News An Iranian pastor who has spent most of the past four years behind bars has now been transferred to another prison on the other side of the country, 1,000 miles from his home and family. Abdolreza Ali-Haghnejad, who is known as Matthias, was flown yesterday morning from Rasht, northern Iran, to the remote southern city of Minab, where he has been told he must serve the remainder of his six-year prison sentence for “propagating Christianity”. Matthias had been serving this particular sentence in his home city of Anzali, near Rasht, since January 2022, when he was detained just two weeks after being released following his acquittal from a separate five-year sentence for “promoting Zionist Christianity”. The sentence Matthias is now serving – of which he was also once acquitted, before this was later overturned – dates back to 2012, and stipulated that he was to be imprisoned in Minab. However, until now, this aspect of the sentence had not been enforced. But yesterday morning, Matthias was suddenly taken to the airport in Rasht and flown to the other side of the country, without a chance to say goodbye to his wife, Anahita, or their daughter, Hannah. It is not uncommon for the Iranian authorities to order that detainees are imprisoned or exiled in remote places, as an additional means of punishment, and especially in cases involving prisoners of conscience. Matthias, who is part of the “Church of Iran” denomination, has a long history of arrest dating back to 2006. He was arrested most recently, alongside Anahita, at Christmas, when Matthias was on leave from prison. New charges In a separate development, Article18’s partner organisation CSW reported on Friday that Matthias and another “Church of Iran” leader who has spent years in prison, Yousef Nadarkhani, had been summoned to face new charges. Article18 understands that Yousef, who was released from prison in March, went to the prosecutor’s office in Rasht the following day, as directed, but was then told to go home again as the judge had not turned up. CSW reported that the new charges were a result of accusations brought against the two pastors by two church members who were “pressurised into incriminating them”. The church members, Ramin Hassanpour and wife Saeede (Kathrin) Sajadpour, were themselves sentenced to a combined seven years in prison in 2020 for “acting against national security” by belonging to a house-church and “spreading Zionist Christianity”. CSW said the couple, who have two children, had faced “significant pressure from the political police prior to implicating the pastors”. “The idea is to threaten to take the children away,” CSW’s source said. “This development highlights the determination of certain members within the political police to employ despicable methods in suppressing minority groups.” CSW’s Mervyn Thomas added: “The charge faced by Pastors Nadarkhani and Haghnejad is the latest in a long litany of injustices experienced by both men. Moreover, they reportedly emerged after psychological pressure was exerted on their accusers, who only have a passing acquaintance with one of the pastors. This alone should render these allegations unreliable and inadmissible. “These men are clearly being subjected to officially engineered harassment due to their church leadership roles, in contravention of a November 2021 Supreme Court ruling that ‘merely preaching Christianity’ should not be deemed a threat to national security.”
Three Christian women held incommunicado for 40 days face court hearing on unknown charges 30 June 2023 News Left to right: Shilan Oraminejad, Razieh (Maral) Kohzady, and Zahra (Yalda) Heidary. (Photo: Mehr Ministries) Three Iranian women converts to Christianity arrested last month and held incommunicado in Tehran’s Evin Prison for 40 days face a court hearing on Sunday on unknown charges, according to a US-based Christian organisation. Shilan Oraminejad, Razieh (Maral) Kohzady, and Zahra (Yalda) Heidary were arrested in their homes early in the morning of 9 May by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence, who claimed to have search warrants and confiscated personal belongings including mobile phones, laptops, books, and pamphlets “without any explanation”, according to Mehr Ministries. The Christians were then reportedly taken to an unknown location and held incommunicado for 40 days, before being able to call their families to let them know they were being held in Evin Prison. The Christians have since reportedly been able to see their families, but continue to be denied access to a lawyer. Hamid Hatami, president of Mehr Ministries, told VOA Farsi that when their families visited them in prison, “they were not in a good physical condition”. Yesterday, Mehr reported that two of the women – Shilan and Zahra – have been released on bail, but Maral remains in custody. All three reportedly face a court hearing on Sunday, 2 July, at the 28th Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran. Article18 has not yet been able to independently verify the report, but has reached out to Mehr for further information.
Convert flogged for second time, now faces exile 27 June 2023 News Saheb must now travel to Nehbandan (pictured), 1,000 miles from his home in Rasht. A house-church leader who has already spent nearly five years in prison, and was once flogged for drinking Communion wine, has been flogged a second time and now faces two years in exile. Zaman Fadaie, who is known as Saheb, was flogged again on Sunday, 25 June, having travelled from his home in Rasht, northern Iran, to Tehran in the hope of securing the release of a property deed submitted long ago for his bail. But instead of receiving the property deed back, Saheb was told that despite his recent “pardoning”, two punishments remained on his case file that had yet to be enforced: 50 lashes for not returning to prison on time following a furlough, and two years’ exile in the city of Nehbandan, 1,000 miles from home, as part of a separate conviction for “spreading propaganda against the regime”. Saheb, who is part of the “Church of Iran”, was served his 50 lashes on the spot, and then told he must submit himself to the authorities in Nehbandan, which is close to the Afghan border, within the “next few days”. Saheb, who recently celebrated his 42nd birthday, is married to Marjan, who travelled with him to Tehran and waited outside as he was flogged, and they have a 16-year-old daughter, Marta. Marjan told Saheb she was willing to travel with him into exile, but Saheb does not want his family to have to endure the punishment alongside him, or to take Marta away from her home and friends. Therefore, Saheb and his family must now prepare themselves for yet another separation, and Marjan will have to take sole charge of the new grocery store the couple have set up together since Saheb’s release. Saheb’s friend and fellow former prisoner, Yousef Nadarkhani, has also been flogged since his release from prison – also for not returning to prison on time from a furlough – and faces two years in exile in Nikshahr, 450 miles further south of Nehbandan. Nikshahr and Nehbandan belong, respectively, to the provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan and South Khorasan, two of the poorest in Iran and therefore with limited work opportunities. Christian convert Ebrahim Firouzi was also sent into exile in Sistan and Baluchestan province after his release from prison, while Youhan Omidi, who was imprisoned alongside Saheb and Yousef, was sent to the equally remote city of Borazjan, in far southwestern Iran.