Fifth convert released amid mass pardoning of political prisoners 6 March 2023 News A fifth convert has been released as part of the mass pardoning of political prisoners, while there are reports two more may also have been freed, perhaps taking the total to as many as seven within the past month. Milad Goodarzi, who was nearly halfway through a three-year sentence – reduced from five – for “engaging in propaganda that educates in a deviant way contrary to the holy religion of Islam”, was released from Karaj’s Central Prison on Saturday morning. And Article18 understands the two men imprisoned alongside him, Amin Khaki and Alireza Nourmohammadi, may also have been released. The trio, who belong to the “Church of Iran” denomination, were the first converts to be charged, and then sentenced, under the amended Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code, which Article18’s director, Mansour Borji, had warned would “bring more ambiguity to an already ambiguous set of charges” and “decrease the chance that a judge may act in a more tolerant way towards house-church members, by providing greater scope within the law to bring charges on these vaguely-defined grounds”. Reacting to the news of Milad’s release, Mr Borji commented: “Why so many Christians have been released is open to speculation, but it comes amidst a mass amnesty of political prisoners. And Christians, by the nature of the charges that are applied to them, are included in this package of political prisoners of conscience. “When there is an amnesty, it’s usually the judiciary which goes through several different cases, and puts a seal of approval that these particular ones can be considered for pardons. So it’s not a blanket pardoning of everyone, but those that have been approved by the judiciary and chief prosecutor’s office. And that’s why most of those who have been released have served the majority of their sentences, making them eligible for parole and therefore easier to sanction their release. “There could be many different reasons for why so many have been released. It could be overpopulation of prisons; the huge social-media campaigns that constantly remind people about these prisoners and put Iran in the spotlight; or Iran trying to repair a quite damaged reputation internationally, and calm the situation. The easiest thing to do is to release prisoners that they feel are less of a risk.” Milad’s release follows those of Saheb Fadaei, Moslem Rahimi, Mehdi Rokhparvar, and most recently Yousef Nadarkhani, while two more converts, Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh and Fariba Dalir, were released last October. However, there are still at least 12 Iranian Christians serving sentences of imprisonment or internal exile because of charges related to their faith or religious activities, while Mr Borji also noted that many other political prisoners, especially outspoken ones such as Narges Mohammadi, have not been pardoned.
5. Court Hearing 4 March 2023 Notes from Prison This is the fifth in a series of articles by Mojtaba Hosseini, an Iranian convert to Christianity who spent more than three years in prison in the southern city of Shiraz because of his membership of a house-church. Mojtaba’s first note from prison explained his journey to faith and the first of his two subsequent arrests; his second detailed his long interrogation; his third explained the desperation and loneliness of solitary confinement and his fourth described some of the dreams and visions he had in prison. In this fifth note, Mojtaba describes the moment he was brought before a judge. It was my 21st day of solitary confinement. Early in the morning, the prison guard opened the door and, as usual, said simply: “Blindfold, on.” Usually, when the door was opened, it was either for me to be taken for interrogation, or for them to take the rubbish out. But on that day, without saying another word to me, I was led outside and pushed into a car, with my hands cuffed and my feet in chains. From the moment I entered the car I felt very anxious and, as we drove along, a thousand and one thoughts crossed my mind about where I was being taken. On the one hand, I feared they were taking me to the middle of nowhere so they could kill me. On the other, I was scared they might be taking me to the public prison. After about half an hour, the car stopped, they took off my blindfold, and I looked up to see the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Then I was taken out of the car, with my hands and ankles still bound, and led inside. Identity There were a number of people outside, watching me as I was taken in, and I thought to myself that I must look like such a dangerous criminal to them, to be bound in such a way. I wondered what crimes they thought I must have committed – a drug trafficker, perhaps? A murderer? Or maybe a fraudster? At first, their gaze weighed heavily on me, but then I reminded myself that my identity and worth wasn’t found in people’s opinions of me, but in God’s – and that this God loved me so much that He had given His life to free me from all past and present humiliation. Throughout my time in prison, I had to constantly remind myself of this: that, in the end, it didn’t matter what society or the government, or even my friends and family, may think of me. My identity is found in God alone. Despite the many accusations levelled at me, and the humiliations I went through, the important truth was that in God’s eyes I was a prince, redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. I would remind myself of how my life had been miraculously transformed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and meditate on the words of Romans 8: “So what can I say about all this? If God is with me, who can be against me? He who did not spare his own Son, but sacrificed him for me; will He not also, along with him, graciously give me all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies me! Who then will condemn me? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is interceding for me! Who then shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship, persecution or famine, nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things I am victorious because of Him who loves me.” God’s great and indescribable love was sweet incense to my soul, and enabled me to overcome all my troubles and torments. After being made to wait for a while, I was taken into the judge’s room, where he sat, reading my case. After a few minutes of silence, he suddenly angrily shouted: “You are wrong to have insulted our sacred beliefs!” I immediately replied: “In no way have I ever insulted them!” But he cut me off, saying: “When you go to prison, you will be taught manners so that you will no longer act against this government and its sacred beliefs! Then you will be released on bail.” And, without listening to my defence at all, he ordered the intelligence agent to take me away. Fear and comfort Since I’d had no way to contact my family, I was very worried about whether they would even hear about my chance to post bail, and, if not, I feared how long I might be left in prison. I was also extremely afraid just about going to prison, having heard so many bad things. But there I was, sitting in a waiting room, about to be taken there. I still couldn’t believe it – that I, Mojtaba, was about to be taken to prison, having done nothing at all to harm anyone. My heart was filled with an anxiety that threatened to consume me. But at that very moment I suddenly remembered the words of Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” These words became my prayer, and from the depths of my being, at my moment of greatest weakness, I relied on them. And in a very real and tangible way, these words provided me with strength and courage at the very moment I needed them. Every single word of this wonderful prayer of David was like a caress from my Heavenly Father, telling me: “You are my son and I will take care of you.” This prayer brought such peace and courage to me that it was as though I had been transformed into another person. I could so tangibly feel my Heavenly Father’s support and care, knowing that it was in Him that I found my hope and identity. I remember sitting quietly from the moment I was placed back in the car until we arrived at the entrance to the prison, and the power of that prayer still remained with me, and I truly understood the meaning of the words: “You are with me in the valley of the shadow of death.”
A letter from Yousef Nadarkhani on the day he was released from prison 3 March 2023 News Yousef Nadarkhani, Bible in hand, stands in front of the only church in Rasht that offered services in the national language of Persian, before its forcible closure. Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who was released on Sunday after nearly five years’ arbitrary detention in Tehran’s Evin Prison, has shared with Article18 a letter he wrote on the day of his release “as a testimony and to express my gratitude”. In the letter, a full translation of which can be read below, the pastor says that although he has been “locked up many times because of His name” – he previously spent three years in prison after he was sentenced to death for apostasy – he considers everything he has endured as his “small part in sharing in the labour and suffering of Christ”. “I know that these things happen to me because I want to live according to God’s will,” he writes. “Today I am extremely happy, and I rejoice, because I experienced the fulfilment of God’s promise, according to my trust in Him. He saved me from enduring a long-term imprisonment – 10 years of imprisonment and two years of exile – as he had previously delivered me from the death sentence.” You can read the full text of the letter below. I present these few lines as a testimony and to express my gratitude. Oh, how kind and loving is our God! Because he showed me how to believe in Him and be filled with the love of Jesus Christ, and gain the strength to serve Him. So I say as long as I live: glory and honour to God, who is the King of all ages. Yes, he is the God who refines His Church through various trials, and prepares it to appear in His presence as a bride, without blemish and stain. Amen. As a soldier and a humble servant of Jesus Christ, I consider everything that I have experienced during my days of service, and endured in my homeland of Iran, as my small part in sharing in the labour and suffering of Christ. By faith, I share in his sufferings, so that, according to his words, I will also share in his joys. Today I am extremely happy, and I rejoice, because I experienced the fulfilment of God’s promise, according to my trust in Him. He saved me from enduring a long-term imprisonment – 10 years of imprisonment and two years of exile – as he had previously delivered me from the death sentence. I know that these things happen to me because I want to live according to God’s will. Therefore, I ask Him to help me continuously so that I can be loyal to Him and endure everything; to be steadfast in all circumstances and to show by the way I live that I look forward to His return. Whenever this thought came to me that it is very difficult to serve Him in this world, I remembered that a day will come when I will sit by His side and reign with Him. Also, although as a child of God I have been locked up many times because of His name, I still believe that no-one can ever lock up His Word at any time or place. His Word is spread everywhere. Yes, I believe in His Word. It is certain for everyone that God never lies! Divine truths always stand, and nothing can shake them. It is like a foundation stone on which these two sentences are written: God knows those who truly belong to Him, and those who believe they belong to Christ must avoid wrongdoing. As in all times, today also with the hardships and sufferings and pressures that Satan and the spiritual forces of evil inflicted on God’s people, there were some among us who turned away from God and His commandments, and became weak in their faith, acting against their servants and fellow human beings, testifying and believing the false accusations of the servants of the evil one, and in this way it has caused discouragement and despair among the believers, making them unable to go through trials. I hope that God will not hold this wrongdoing against them. But God, by His grace, helped us to pass through these days and witness His grace again, according to our trust and faith, and the peace that He put in our hearts before enduring imprisonment. May God’s faithfulness in all these matters become permanent and eternal in our memories. May God’s grace and mercy be with those who, according to His command, have not refrained from doing any good deeds of serving and helping these little ones in Christ. Echoing Paul, and by quoting him, who suffered many times due to the preaching of the Gospel message – suffered severe persecution, hardships and imprisonment – I declare that may God grant his grace and mercy upon those who were not ashamed of our imprisonment, and remembered us, and tried to meet our needs and, through prayers, stood by us and with us in this spiritual battle, and in this way became a source of encouragement and joy to us, so that we could remain firm and steadfast. Glory be to God, who alone is wise, through Jesus Christ forever! Amen The humble servant of Jesus Christ,Yousef Nadarkhani,26 February 2023
Arbitrarily detained pastor released from prison but faces flogging and exile 1 March 2023 News An Iranian pastor once sentenced to death for his “apostasy” has been “pardoned” and released after nearly five years in Tehran’s Evin Prison, but told he still faces flogging and two years’ exile 2,000km from his home. Yousef Nadarkhani, whose death sentence was overturned back in 2011, was sentenced again in July 2017, alongside three other converts, to 10 years in prison and two years’ exile for “acting against national security by propagating house-churches and promoting ‘Zionist’ Christianity”. A year later, Pastor Yousef was violently arrested at his home in Rasht, northern Iran – one of his sons was also assaulted – and taken to Tehran to begin his sentence. And, aside from two short furloughs, there Pastor Yousef has remained until his release on Sunday, 26 February. But as the pastor was being released, despite having been told he had been pardoned – and this also recorded on the official prison database – he was informed he would soon be summoned to receive 30 lashes and also to serve his two years in exile in Nikshahr, on the other side of the country from his home in Rasht. Pastor Yousef was told that the lashes were because of an unauthorised leave of absence from prison, when he failed to return to prison on time after his most recent of two furloughs last year. For this, he was told he had been sentenced to 40 lashes, but that one quarter of this number had been “forgiven” him. Speaking to Article18 from his home, Pastor Yousef said he was “happy to be released and at home after nearly five years in prison” and “very grateful for all those who prayed for me and remembered me while I was in prison”. He added: “All I endured was small in comparison with what Christ has done for us.” A long battle During his incarceration, Pastor Yousef, who is a member of the “Church of Iran” denomination, undertook a three-week hunger strike to protest against the denial of education to his two sons, after they were prohibited from progressing at school because they objected to sitting exams on the Quran. Pastor Yousef has been fighting for his sons’ right not to sit such exams for more than a decade. In Iran, children of recognised religious minorities, including Christians, are exempt from having to sit these exams, but converts to Christianity are unrecognised, meaning their children are generally still considered Muslim. Pastor Yousef took his protests to the highest authority in the land, resulting in the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, giving an opinion on the subject in the form of an official fatwa, which stated: “The [convert] himself may be considered an apostate, but if they married after the apostasy, according to their own new religious principles, their children will not be considered apostates.” Given that Pastor Yousef and his wife, Tina, married after their conversion, this ruling should have meant that their children should be treated as Christians, but in practice this has not proved the case. In 2020, Pastor Yousef’s sentence was reduced to six years, and later that year the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that his detention was “arbitrary” on four counts: lack of legal basis for detention; detention resulting from “legitimate exercise” of freedoms; lack of fair trial and due process; and “discrimination based on religious beliefs”. Pastor Yousef denied himself the opportunity of a furlough from prison until 2022, declaring that he did not feel comfortable taking a break from prison until all other Christian detainees had had the opportunity. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom was one of many Western institutions to follow Pastor Yousef’s case, and advocate on his behalf.
Third Christian convert released as part of latest pardons 28 February 2023 News A third Christian convert was among the prisoners pardoned and released earlier this month, Article18 can now confirm. Mehdi Rokhparvar, who was serving a five-year sentence for “acting against national security” by “forming an illegal evangelical Christian group”, was released from Tehran’s Evin Prison in the same week as fellow convert Saheb Fadaie. As reported last week, another convert, Moslem Rahimi, was released a week later, as part of a wider amnesty of prisoners on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Republic. Each year, the Islamic Republic announces a wave of pardons to coincide with particular events – for example in October last year, when Christian converts Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh and Fariba Dalir were pardoned on the occasion of Muhammad’s birth. However, as noted in Article18’s new annual report, “such pardons, while welcome, do not address the original injustice of their sentencing, and imprisonment and the government continues to regard rights and freedoms guaranteed in international law as crimes, including the right to freely adopt a religion of one’s choice, and to manifest one’s faith in community with others”. Mehdi Rokhparvar had been in Evin Prison since June 2020, after a judge increased his bail to 7 billion tomans ($220,000), telling him and another convert, Yasser Akbari: “Your actions are worthy of death! Who set this low bail amount for you, so you could be free to roam about on the streets?” Four months later, Mehdi, Yasser and two women converts, Fatemeh Sharifi, and Simin Soheilinia, were sentenced to a combined 35 years in prison. The four Christians were first arrested in January 2019 during coordinated raids by intelligence agents on their homes in Tehran. In December 2021, Yasser’s only son died in the care facility where he had been living since his father’s imprisonment, and Yasser was not able to secure a temporary release from prison until after the funeral had already taken place.
4. Dreams and Visions 25 February 2023 Notes from Prison This is the fourth in a series of articles by Mojtaba Hosseini, an Iranian convert to Christianity who spent more than three years in prison in the southern city of Shiraz because of his membership of a house-church. Mojtaba’s first note from prison explained his journey to faith and the first of his two subsequent arrests; his second detailed his long interrogation; his third explained the desperation and loneliness of solitary confinement. In this fourth note, Mojtaba describes some of the dreams and visions he had in prison. Oh, how sweet it felt to be home! It was lunchtime, I was sitting next to my father, and my mother had brought out some delicious home-cooked food. My sisters were rejoicing that I was safely back home and in good health. Overflowing with a sense of peace and security, in the warm, comforting atmosphere of home, I thanked God a thousand times that the nightmare of solitary confinement was over. It felt like no-one could steal this peace from me. It was in this blissful state that I was suddenly aroused from slumber by the loud noise of the hatch to my cell door being opened. The prison guard barked out his orders in his usual demeaning tone: “Hurry up and take your breakfast!” My heart was pounding, and I was in a daze. I couldn’t believe I was still in prison. That sweet dream had felt so real, so profound, as though I had been out of jail for many years. Suddenly being brought back to a very different reality was a stark contrast which was hard to digest. Such dreams came to me from time to time. In one sense they were sweet, but they were also like torture, because every time I opened my eyes to rediscover that I remained in the confines of my cell, I was reminded that I was still living a nightmare which was very real. Restless As the days went by, my frustration and loneliness intensified. At the same time, every time I returned from the intense interrogations, I became more and more restless and found it harder and harder to cope. As I paced around my tiny cell, all day long, from morning till night, I fretted about my next interrogation: whether I would be able to bear it, and what answers I would give to their incessant questions. To escape these thoughts, I continuously prayed and worshipped, feeling that if I stopped to consider my situation for even a moment, my anxiety and frustration would overwhelm me. Some days, I kept on walking from morning till night, despite the pain in my legs. My negative thoughts also affected me in another way: they made me feel unworthy, like a failure, because in the sheer loneliness that I felt, missing my loved ones, I always remembered the times we had shared together, but what kept coming to mind were the times I had failed them. The mistakes I had made, and my deep regret for behaving in a certain way towards them, were constantly on mind. So were the mistakes I had made in my relationship with God; I was defining myself by my failures. Sometimes it felt like God must have rejected me because of my failures, and once, unconsciously, I remember praying from the bottom of my heart: “Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?” But there were also times when, through worship and prayer, I was able to kneel in the presence of God and remember again his great grace and forgiveness, made available to me in Christ, and the great changes that he had accomplished within me and also my family. During those moments, I would hear his kind, comforting voice, telling me: “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” In this battle, I experienced more and more of the presence of Jesus with me, the perfecter of my faith, knowing that he had gone through every one of these struggles and emerged victorious. I found strength and courage, by the Holy Spirit, and knew that whether I was failing or succeeding, standing strong or crumpled in a heap, I was his child and that my identity was in him. A vision One day, I felt such an overwhelming sense of hopelessness that I felt I couldn’t endure going to yet another interrogation; I so desperately wanted my nightmare to end. I was crying out in prayer and expressing my feelings to God, when suddenly I saw a vision – but more than just an image, I had a feeling, or a deep inner understanding, which I will try my best to describe: I saw a group of people, and seeing them gave me nothing but joy and peace. Their affection for each other was so pure that they seemed even closer than brothers and sisters, and there was no tension or disharmony between them. It seemed like it was impossible for any of them to cause another pain, and it was clear that all their hope and joy was found in being with one another. They were so warm and close with each other, and shared such joy and laughter. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put into words how powerful that vision was for me, but it was like tasting a piece of heaven. And in the midst of them, right in the centre, I saw Christ standing, and everyone gathered around him. They seemed to be celebrating a great victory, and I had a sense that the people I was looking at were extremely strong, and that there were none stronger. And then, right at that moment, Christ spoke to me from the crowd, and said: “You belong to us, and we are with you.” At that moment, unconsciously, a smile appeared on my face, and my mood was utterly transformed and I was able to rejoice in the living and sweet truth of God. This vision, which was more powerful than any nightmare, brought me refreshment and a new measure of courage. I remember being interrogated that same day, and at the interrogation table the sweetness of that moment remained with me, and the smile was still on my face. Through this vision, God showed me what my real identity was, and where and to whom I belonged – to the divine family, whose centre is Christ – and that belonging to him brings with it the very fullness of honour and joy.
‘Wherever we went, intelligence agents would follow our car and take pictures of us’ 22 February 2023 Analysis This extract of an interview conducted by the director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, Willy Fautré, was first published by the magazine Bitter Winter and is republished here with kind permission. Iranian-Assyrian Christian Dabrina Bet-Tamraz was forced to flee Tehran in 2010 because of her faith. She is now a pastor in a German-speaking Protestant community in Switzerland, and a tireless campaigner for religious freedom in Iran, having been the voice of the voiceless at the United Nations, in her meeting with the US President, and at American think-tanks. Dabrina’s parents, Pastor Victor Bet-Tamraz and Shamiram Issavi, were sentenced to a combined 15 years in prison. They fled Iran in 2020 when they were summoned to start serving their prison terms, and joined their daughter in Switzerland. ‘What does it mean to be a Christian in Iran?’ “During my life in Tehran we were shadowed all the time by officers of the Ministry of Intelligence and the police. Wherever we went, they would follow our car and take pictures of us. They even followed me when I was alone on the street and sent my picture to my parents to show that they were watching each of us in the family. We lost our privacy. They would call us on a regular basis to check where we were. On several occasions, they broke into our home, just to show we were under surveillance. This is what it meant to be a Christian in Iran. I had got used to that sort of life. It was so normal that when I started living in another country, I was shocked to realise that it was not normal at all. It took me eight years in Switzerland to stop looking back in the mirror of my car and checking all the cars passing by before parking.” ‘Were you arrested when you were living in Iran?’ “When I was 17, I spent three years and a half in England to study theology. I went back home in 2007 and started studying psychology at the university but I was also serving the Church with my parents. I was arrested several times in 2009 when our church was closed by the authorities. I was repeatedly called for interrogations by the police. They wanted me to ‘cooperate’ with them, which meant giving them the names of our members and leaders, the times and places of our private gatherings, the number of people attending but also the activities of pastors in other cities. They wanted me to work for them as their spy [against] my family, our church but also other churches. As I refused to do so, they threatened me with rape, arrest and imprisonment for five years. Finally I was expelled from the university and I thought it was time for me to leave a country where I had no more future.” ‘Article 13 of the Iranian constitution recognises Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians as protected religious minorities with the right to worship freely and form religious societies, but your picture of religious life in Iran is very different and suggests that religious minorities are severely discriminated against. How can you explain that?’ “Christianity is only partly recognised, and we suffer from harsh limitations in the practice of our faith, our freedom of assembly and worship. Since the 1979 revolution, the regime has imposed a new identity on the Iranian people which is based on people’s religious beliefs. If you are a Shia Muslim, no problem. If you are not a Shia believer, you will face restrictions. As a child, I was discriminated against and stigmatised at school. Christian children were considered ‘unclean’ and were mistreated. In the 1990s, more than eight pastors and church leaders were killed because of their faith. My father was arrested and interrogated on a regular basis. He was asked to ‘cooperate’ with the authorities. As he didn’t, he was discriminated against and threatened. “My father was arrested in 2014, [and] my brother and my mother in 2016, because of their church activities and for allegedly ‘acting against national security’ and ‘training spies’. My brother is still in Iran with his family. He spent three months in prison, and then six months. He was released in 2020 during the coronavirus epidemic. He is still out of jail right now.” ‘You said Christians endured restrictions to the practice of their faith. Can you give some examples?’ “Iran has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. According to these international instruments, all the citizens of Iran should fully enjoy their right to freedom of religion, including the right to share their beliefs and the right to convert. Before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was president of Iran from 2005 to 2013, we were allowed to have religious services in [Persian], the official language of Iran, and to have religious literature in Persian. When Ahmadinejad became president, we were not allowed any more to conduct services in thePersian language, to have literature or books in Persian. Only Assyrian people could enter the church and only the language of the Assyrians could be used. Muslim converts to Christianity were not recognised as Christians by the authorities, although they are in majority in the Christian community of Iran. We were not allowed to have Iranians and converts in the church. We were not allowed to worship in Persian. Under Ahmadinejad, Protestants were considered terrorists, Zionists, and a threat to national security. Ten years after Ahmadinejad’s rule, Christians like us are still not allowed to share their faith with Iranians in their own language.” ‘Was it easy to get political asylum in Switzerland?’ “I went to Switzerland, thinking that the situation would improve in Iran and I could go back home six months or a year later. After some time, I realised there was no hope and I asked for political asylum. It took me two years to get this status. I had to provide evidence that I was really an Assyrian Christian and that I and my family were persecuted in Iran. After 12 years spent in Europe, it is still my hope and my dream to go back to a free Iran.” You can watch the full interview below:
‘When I became a Christian, I was beaten and kicked out of the house’ 22 February 2023 Features, News Parsa’s story is different from a lot of other Iranian Christians who have experienced persecution. For most, the primary source of persecution is the state, but in Parsa’s case, although he was also pressured by the security forces, the main point of pressure came from his family. Parsa converted to Christianity at the age of 21, and this proved very difficult to accept for his family, who were devout Muslims. His mother and brother told him they were glad about the positive changes in his behaviour since his conversion, but sad he no longer prayed with them. “I explained to them that I had started to believe in Jesus,” Parsa explains, “and my brother said, with a lump in his throat: ‘You’ll be sorry if Dad learns about it!’ A month later, my father found out, beat me up, and kicked me out of the house.” Parsa was also pressured at work, and told he would be fired unless he returned to Islam. Parsa refused; so that was the end of his job. Meanwhile, at home, the pressure from his family continued. They separated his dishes and towels from theirs, made him stay in different rooms from his siblings, and even locked him up at night. “They thought I had been given medicine, which had changed me and calmed me down so that I could forgive and love,” he says. “My mother used to say: ‘Your behaviour is great. Stay the same, but come and pray with us!’ I would try to explain to her what the real reason was for my change in behaviour, but she couldn’t accept it.” Parsa explains how his family even invited Islamic scholars and a friend of his to try to change his mind. But this friend only testified that he’d seen positive changes in Parsa since his conversion, and a few months later he too converted. Still, Parsa’s family would not give up. They called upon an acquaintance with ties to the regime, and asked him to arrest Parsa, but this man replied: “Please don’t ask me to do such a thing! I don’t want to! Because if someone is arrested for these charges, there is no way out, and they will definitely kill him, and then you and your family will regret it. You’ve been patient until now, so continue enduring it, and maybe he’ll regret it in the future.” But Parsa did not regret his decision, and continued to meet up with his new Christian friends. He was baptised in the summer of 2013. But two years later, as Parsa and two of his Christian friends were finalising their plans for a new business venture together, their premises was raided by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence. The agents drove Parsa back to his house, to conduct a search, and his father cursed him, telling the agents: “This boy has ruined us! We did everything we could, but we couldn’t bring him back to the right path. Why didn’t you come sooner? Take him with you and do whatever your heart desires. Even if you kill him, I won’t complain!” Parsa was detained and interrogated for three weeks, and says he was “severely tortured psychologically”. “They find your weakness and try to put pressure on you, even through phone calls – for example, they knew that my mother was upset about my condition, so they called my home and asked for my mother on purpose. When I talked to her, she was crying, and her tears made me feel bad. I started crying with her and told her not to worry about me. Relatives had gathered at our house during that time, and they were sad about my arrest. They mourned with my family, and cried.” With his arrest, Parsa says his family’s approach to him softened, and they even reached out to their friend with ties to the regime for help. “Miraculously,” Parsa says, it turned out that this man knew his interrogator. “Before they spoke together, my interrogator had insulted me during every interrogation,” he says, “but after their call, his behaviour towards me changed completely… ‘I want to help you,’ he told me, ‘so you have to fill out these forms’… “He said: ‘You have to make a commitment not to see any of your Christian friends after your release and not to travel with them.’ I said I would never agree to that. ‘You are well aware that we didn’t commit any crime,’ I said. ‘You asked us not to do any training sessions, and I will obey that, but you can’t take away our natural right to visit each other. If you have problems with our gatherings at home, we will meet in the park and pray together there.’ He replied: ‘You are very rude, and if you continue like this, I will order that they execute you!’ But I refused to make or sign any such commitment. After three weeks’ detention, Parsa was released on bail, paid for through the submission of his father’s property deed. “My father put a lot of pressure on me because of this,” Parsa says. Parsa’s education was also impacted. He needed just six credits to complete a degree, but suddenly Parsa stopped receiving good grades. “When I was in prison, the interrogator had told me: ‘If you don’t cooperate with us, all your work opportunities and even your university education in Iran will be over,'” Parsa says. “But I hadn’t really thought the MOIS would inform the university about my arrest and security file. I had completed my diploma at another university, and at that time I was studying accounting at the Islamic Azad University of Qods City in Tehran. But due to the interference of the intelligence officials, unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to pass the six credits required to receive my final degree.” Meanwhile, Parsa says that “everywhere I went, one or two cars followed me, and my phone calls were tapped, which made me paranoid. Even when I went to buy new clothes, I felt like they were watching and listening to my every move… “The most stressful moment for me was when someone knocked on the door, and I went to open it. Even if the person standing on the other side was my best friend, the experience made me feel very nervous and disorientated. Unconsciously, I would experience a déjà vu of the scene when I opened the door and agents had entered and arrested me.” Ten months after his release from prison, Parsa fled Iran, and sought asylum in Turkey. Three months later, he was sentenced, in absentia, to five years in prison. Parsa explains that in the more than six years since he fled Iran, he’s attended many counselling sessions, as well as a trauma-awareness course run by Article18, which he says “helped me a lot to get rid of the déjà vus that I suffered from”. But though he claimed asylum in 2016, Parsa is still waiting for an interview with the Turkish authorities, which have since taken over refugee cases from the UNHCR. You can read Parsa’s full Witness Statement here.
Parsa Mostafaei 22 February 2023 News, Witness Statements For a summary of Parsa’s story, you can read our feature article here. Background 1. My name is Ali Mostafaei, known as Parsa. I was born in June 1991 in Shahriar, Tehran, to a large and relatively well-off family. I have three sisters and three brothers, and I’m the youngest. But as a result of the medication my mother used during pregnancy, I was of an anxious disposition and different from the rest of my siblings. 2. Every member of my family adhered strongly to Islam, and we used to attend congregational prayers at the mosque. We all prayed the five daily prayers on time, and if we missed the prayer time, we would feel really bad about it. My father and older brother were members of the board of trustees of the local mosque and religious centre. Because of my love for God, I started praying at the age of 11, instead of the official age of 15 [when Muslim boys are obliged to pray]. I also read the Quran in Arabic and Persian. But although I had a religious family, there were regular fights and disagreements within the family. 3. My family controlled my relationships with my friends, and they weren’t happy with the way I dressed, my hair, and my overall appearance. If I disobeyed or refused to act according to their taste, my father or older brother would severely beat me. I was so angry that I thought I could never, and would never, forgive my brother. On holidays like Nowruz [Persian New Year], my father tried to bring the family closer together, but the next day it would just go back to how it always was. 4. At the age of 15, in 2006, due to disagreements and problems with my family, I decided to separate my life from my family’s, so I left home. But after three days, they found me and brought me back. 5. After returning, I decided to work hard at school and find a job, so that I wouldn’t be dependent on my family. I started working at the age of 15, and I only went home for food and sleep, and spent the rest of my time elsewhere, so that I could do what I liked. But I still prayed, because I loved God and thought that prayer and good deeds would undo the mistakes and sins I had committed. But others thought I was hypocritical. Conversion and first house-church meeting 6. After school, I started university and, during the second term, started working at a company that repaired road-construction machines. Before that, I didn’t have much money, and, due to the state of my relationship with my family, I didn’t want to receive any help from them. So I went to university three days a week and worked in the company for the rest of the week. 7. At work, there was a very respectable young man, one of the company’s young engineers, named Sajjad, who was a year older than me, and very different from the others. One day he took me with him to do a job in Tehran. In the car, he talked to me about Jesus. Two things happened inside me at the same time: one was that I wanted to open my mouth and swear at him, and the other was that I was attracted by his words. 8. He asked me about my life, because really my religiosity didn’t tally with my lifestyle. He talked about Christ, and I talked about Islam. ّI couldn’t accept his conversion and it made me hate him. My life went on as usual, but when I saw Sajjad and how well he behaved, I felt conflicted. So, secretly and in the middle of the night, away from the eyes of other family members, I started to read the Bible and watched the film about Jesus that Sajjad had given to me as a gift. 9. One day in November 2012, when we were at work, Sajjad noticed me being agitated. The reason was that I felt confused and worried about my family’s reaction to my possible decision to follow Christ. Sajjad asked me: “I have friends who pray together in a particular place. Would you like to join us?” I accepted and he took me to his house, which was an hour away from ours. 10. Sajjad’s younger sister, who was married, and his mother and two friends were there. It was very strange for me; I had never seen women worship without hijab. I was extremely impressed with the atmosphere and how beautiful and interesting it was that they worshipped God in Persian. With Sajjad’s invitation, I prayed that night and made a decision to follow Christ. Family and work 11. I started secretly talking with some family members about Jesus, and some of them also converted. Once, my older brother and my mother asked me a lot about the great change in my behaviour and said: “We are very happy with your actions and behaviour, but why don’t you pray [the Muslim prayers]? If Dad realises that you aren’t praying, he’ll be very angry.” I explained to them that I had started to believe in Jesus, and my brother said, with a lump in his throat: “You’ll be sorry if Dad learns about it!” A month later, my father found out, beat me up, and kicked me out of the house. 12. In January 2013, about two months after my conversion, Sajjad was summoned to the company’s head office for talking about Christianity at work. I was also summoned and told: “We want to fire Sajjad, but we have done some research about you and your family and we know that you have a religious family and that they are committed to Islam, and we feel that you have been deceived by Sajjad’s words. Also, you are the only employee who both studies and works, and has the same salary [as those who work full-time]. So you have good conditions in this company; return to Islam so that you can work again.” 13. But when the company officials realised that I was not willing to give up my faith, they fired me as well. I called Sajjad and told him that I had been fired because of Christianity, and Sajjad hung up. Because of security issues, we never talked about our faith and Christian activities on the phone. 14. After a while, my family decided to take me back home, but to try to influence my thoughts so that I would return to Islam. Famous and well-known Islamic teachers and experts in Islamic law, who had even been invited to speak on the Islamic Republic’s state radio and television several times, were invited to our home to have a discussion with me and bring me back to Islam. They also tried hard to find out who had evangelised to me, but I didn’t name Sajjad. 15. My family treated me badly, considered me unclean and an infidel, and separated my dishes and towels from theirs. They also separated my room from the others, and locked me up at night, especially when my sisters came home. They thought I had been given medicine, which had changed me and calmed me down so that I could forgive and love. My mother used to say: “Your behaviour is great. Stay the same, but come and pray with us!” I would try to explain to her what the real reason was for my change in behaviour, but she couldn’t accept it. I endured a lot of psychological pressure from my family. I prayed for them at night, and I didn’t understand the reasons for all their opposition and insults, despite my tangible changes. 16. My family even invited my friend Pedram, who was our neighbour, and talked to him about me. On the one hand, they didn’t want me to influence someone else, and on the other, they saw Pedram as an example and said that, like him, I should do some research before leaving Islam. But Pedram said to my family: “I know Ali; I know everything he does, how he behaves and how he speaks. He has changed completely these last three months.” A few months later, Pedram also converted to Christianity. 17. My family harassed me; my father is very bigoted about Islam. When he realised that he couldn’t convert me in any way, he beat me up and threw me out of the house again. I evangelised to many people at the university, and among my relatives, and gave them Bibles and the “Jesus” film. And many of my relatives converted to Christianity. 18. My older brother used to love me very much and wanted us to start working together, but it didn’t happen because of my faith in Jesus. Six months after my conversion, my brother called one of his influential acquaintances and put the phone on speaker so I could hear him. My brother told this man: “We did everything we could to return Ali back to Islam, but it hasn’t worked. Please inform the officials, so that they can come and arrest him and take him away.” But he replied: “Please don’t ask me to do such a thing! I don’t want to! Because if someone is arrested for these charges, there is no way out, and they will definitely kill him, and then you and your family will regret it. You’ve been patient until now, so continue enduring it, and maybe he’ll regret it in the future.” House-church and youth group in Karaj 19. The first time I was kicked out, I was away from home for about two to three months, and the next time for six months. Pedram and I borrowed a pick-up truck, which I later bought in instalments, and I and slept in it at night. Also, sometimes I would stay at Sajjad’s house, or another friend’s house. After a while I rented a place together with another Christian friend. At that time, I went to university and also worked with Pedram in an air-conditioning business. We went to people’s homes to do installations and repairs. 20. I participated in house-church meetings in Shahriar. In the summer of 2013, I was secretly baptised in a swimming pool by the leader, Brother Sam. According to the rules of our house-church, each person who evangelised to someone spent several months separately with the new Christian, and if he or she was found to be trustworthy, they were invited to attend meetings. Based on security issues, not more than 15 people gathered in each meeting. We also wouldn’t say the address of the meeting over the phone, and I would go to pick up the members and take them to the weekly meeting-place. 21. I also attended youth meetings in Karaj; Brother Sam had asked me to teach a group of five to six people in the Marlik area about the principles of Christian belief – a sign I was being given more responsibilities. In addition to the meetings, I spent time each week praying with them, and counselling them. Because I had a pick-up truck, I was given Christian books to transport. Arrest 22. Pedram and I wanted to start our own business, so we rented the garage of a house in Andisheh Town Phase 5 – a residential place that we could use to do free food deliveries within the neighbourhood. 23. We had done all the preparations and already bought half the equipment, but then, on 10 November 2015, Pedram, another Christian friend and I closed the garage door and watched football to relax, and at about 10pm, someone knocked on the garage door and said: “Sir, is that your van outside?” I said that it was, and he said: “I hit your van from behind with my car; please come and see what we should do.” Without thinking about how he could have hit my car in an empty alley, and why we didn’t hear a sound, I opened the door. Suddenly, someone pushed me, and over 10 people entered the garage. We were frightened and thought they were thieves. They sat Pedram and my friend on chairs, and I was put on my chest on the floor. I thought they wanted to take our wallets, rob the shop and leave. 24. But after five minutes, I suddenly realised that they weren’t thieves but were agents and were searching the store. Their faces were covered with masks so we wouldn’t be able to identify them. Some of them, like military commanders, wore black, and a group of young people in their twenties were with them – probably Basijis [paramilitaries belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]. I asked: “Are you from the Ministry of Intelligence?” One of them said, ironically: “No, we’re thieves!” When I tried to get up, he put his gun against my temple. I could feel the iron of the revolver against my head. 25. With fear and trembling, I pushed the gun aside with my head and got up and demanded: “Show me your warrant.” One of them showed me a warrant with my name on it: “Ali Mosafaei, nicknamed Parsa.” Pedram’s name was also on the sheet. Our phone calls had been listened to and they had precise information about us. At the same time, they had raided the homes of other Christian groups in the north of Iran, and in Shiraz, etc., and arrested them. 26. They had my parents’ and Pedram’s home addresses, and took Pedram to his house, and separately me to mine in an SUV. An agent told me: “Don’t be afraid; none of your family members are at home.” But while they were searching the house, one by one my family arrived and cried when they saw the scene of my arrest – though my father cursed at me and told the officers: “This boy has ruined us! We did everything we could, but we couldn’t bring him back to the right path. Why didn’t you come sooner? Take him with you and do whatever your heart desires. Even if you kill him, I won’t complain!” 27. They searched the entire house, even the store room, and removed all the notebooks and books they thought were related to Christianity. They confiscated my ID cards, passport, computer, mobile phone, Bible, handwritten notes, notebooks, books, CDs – even books and CDs that weren’t related to Christianity, and books I used for university. One of the agents searched my pick-up truck and found a “Good News for A New Age Bible”, which had just been published and had no cover. He thought that because it was a big book, he had made an important discovery and said: “Look what I have found, and what books he reads!” 28. From the time they entered the garage, until we arrived at the prison, one of them was filming me and everywhere we went, and during the filming, he was reporting on what he saw: “This is Shahriar, the house of the accused,” and so on. In the presence of my family, they treated me with respect in order to show themselves respectable, but then they pushed me into the car and insulted me. Those whose names were on a piece of paper they had brought with them and who lived in Marlik were taken to Karaj Prison, but because I lived in Shahriar and Shahriar was a suburb of Tehran, I was taken to Evin Prison. On the way, they handcuffed me and blindfolded me. Two agents sat in the front of the car, and I and another agent sat in the back. Ward 209, Evin Prison 29. The car stopped in the street in the Evin Prison area. When we got inside the prison, there were two large rooms next to each other on the right-hand side, where people were taken to change their clothes and have their pictures taken. One by one, the rest of the detainees were brought in, including Pedram, Sajjad and several of my relatives. We had to give them our clothes, and were given prison uniforms. They took my glasses because some prisoners commit suicide using the glass from them. I have a high prescription, so it was difficult for me to be without my glasses. 30. We were taken to Ward 209, which was on the first floor. Even though it was a solitary cell, mine was better than the cells of my other friends. There was no toilet in the cell, so they let me out of the cell to use the toilet. They gave me three blankets: one as a pillow, one a blanket, and one to lie on. They also gave me a toothbrush and toothpaste. Once a week, I was allowed to go to the bathroom and, after taking a shower, they gave me fresh clothes. 31. The cell next to mine was my pastor’s cell, and although I could hardly hear his singing and praying, I felt very strengthened by it and joined in. In prison, I had new and beautiful experiences, in addition to the fears and psychological pressures I experienced; I had a close and pleasing relationship with God. 32. I was in solitary confinement for 18 days, and during that time I was interrogated about 15 to 16 times. When I was in the cell, I started to think and became restless. I even told myself I wished they would come and interrogate me, but when they interrogated me, they put me under such psychological pressure that I wished it would end soon. Apparently they had a good-cop, bad-cop interrogation technique. The ill-tempered interrogator would get on your nerves by insulting you, and then the good interrogator would try to calm you down, advise you, and say that his intention was to help you. 33. I was accused of evangelistic activities and of being in charge of the group in Karaj. I was by no means willing to cooperate with them or answer their questions. Once, I saw Sajjad, and he told me to write as much as I could, or everything would take longer. But I just wrote general information. For example, when they asked, “Have you been to a seminar? Who taught you? Who was your leader? Who was your worship leader?” I answered: “We went on a journey; we sang some Christian songs on the way; we all prayed, and each time one person testified about how Christ had impacted his life. Our leader was Jesus, and our teacher was the Holy Spirit.” The interrogator said: “You’re making fun of us and playing with us! I wish this camera wasn’t here, because then we could do whatever we wanted to you!” I said: “I’m not joking. You claim we are working for an organisation and trying to disrupt the security of the regime, but you know very well that we never gathered for this purpose.” 34. No matter how hard they tried to find out who had evangelised to me, I didn’t mention Sajjad’s name; I just told them different irrelevant stories. The interrogators first thought that Sajjad was the main pastor of the church, because he was involved in a lot of activities. His and Brother Sam’s interrogator was the general chief of the prison. 35. They wanted to drive a wedge between us and weaken us mentally, to make us talk. They lied and slandered our leader. They also said we had only attended the gatherings to hang out with girls. But, thank God, except for a few who had converted only a short time before, they couldn’t deceive the rest of us. 36. We were given a general note sheet for writing confessions, at the top of which was written: “Evangelical activity, action against national security.” We had to sign and fingerprint the bottom of each sheet. I was given several other sheets, on which I was told to write down information about each Christian friend I had, including their characteristics and details such as their eye colour, height, weight, etc. During my time in detention, I only wrote about myself, but in the second week they mentioned the names of Pedram, Sajjad, and a few others, and asked me if I knew them. Because we had been arrested at the same time, I answered that I did know them but gave no information about them. 37. I think that’s why they didn’t physically torture us, but we were severely tortured psychologically, and they insulted us and our families. We were asked repetitive questions that made no sense. They find your weakness and try to put pressure on you, even through phone calls – for example, they knew that my mother was upset about my condition, so they called my home and asked for my mother on purpose. When I talked to her, she was crying, and her tears made me feel bad. I started crying with her and told her not to worry about me. Relatives had gathered at our house during that time, and they were sad about my arrest. They mourned with my family, and cried. Release 38. With my arrest, my family’s reaction to me changed. I didn’t have a lawyer but my interrogator once said: “Your brother Hamid goes to the MOIS [Ministry of Intelligence] office in Shahriar every day and asks: ‘Where is my brother and what have you done to him?'”. Hamid’s wife told my mother that he couldn’t sleep at night and was constantly thinking about me and the status of my case. My older brother contacted his influential friend, and after sharing with him the matter of my arrest, he asked for his help. This acquaintance replied that in Evin Prison, all affairs, officials, and positions are secret. “A friend of mine works there,” he said, “but I don’t know what he does – if he is the guard, the cook, or the general chief! But I’ll call him and ask about your brother’s case.” 39. But miraculously, it turned out that this man’s friend was my interrogator, whose nickname was also Parsa. Before they spoke together, my interrogator had insulted me during every interrogation, but after their call, his behaviour towards me changed completely. I had always been taken for interrogations at 10 in the morning or four in the afternoon, and each time the interrogation lasted for three to four hours. But after the call, I was taken for an interrogation at one o’clock in the morning and my interrogator, Mr Parsa, told me about the call and said: “I want to help you, so you have to fill out these forms.” I had written very briefly about Christian families who had recently left Iran and about the times I went to their homes and prayed together; I had written just as much as was necessary for an interrogator to file a report. After he read my answers, he said that I had written just a lot of nonsense. 40. Finally, I told him that I wouldn’t give up on Christianity in any way. He said: “OK, but you have to make a commitment not to see any of your Christian friends after your release and not to travel with them.” I said I would never agree to that. “You are well aware that we didn’t commit any crime,” I said. “You asked us not to do any training sessions and I will obey that, but you can’t take away our natural right to visit each other. If you have problems with our gatherings at home, we will meet in the park and pray together there.” He replied: “You are very rude, and if you continue like this, I will order that they execute you!” But I refused to make or sign any such commitment. 41. After that I was taken to the “suite” [a shared cell, in which up to four prisoners are held]. There, the environment was better and cleaner; there was a toilet and a bathroom, a TV and a samovar for making tea. There were also other people I could talk with. They couldn’t believe I was in prison only because of my belief in Christianity. Twenty-one days after my arrest, during which I was only twice allowed to have a telephone conversation with my family, I was taken for a final interrogation. 42. All the other Christian detainees had had to see Islamic clerics, who came for question-and-answer sessions and tried to convert them back to Islam, while they were interviewed in front of a camera. But due to the call of my brother’s acquaintance, on the twenty-first day of my detention they just took me to a young man, who was in his thirties, and who had recently studied at the Ḥawzah Ilmiyah [Muslim seminary]. He asked me about the Quran, and Islamic laws and punishments. He was very surprised by my answers and said: “You know a lot about Islam!” 43. My bail was set at 120 million tomans [approx. $35,000], but I protested and said I couldn’t afford such an amount, so then it was changed to 70 million tomans [approx. $20,000], and, on 30 November 2015, I was released after my brother submitted the deeds to my father’s house. Between 8.30-9pm, I was taken to the entrance of the prison, where my brother Hamid and my brother-in-law were waiting for my release. My interrogator said: “Mr Parsa, are you doing well? I replied: “You’ve changed your tune! I wish you talked to me as politely as that during the interrogations!” He said: “It’s my job and I have to. Take care and listen to what we have said to you and warned you about.” 44. He told my brother: “You should sign a pledge that Ali will come to our office for an interview, in front of a camera, and that he won’t leave the country.” I promised to go for an interview whenever I was called, just so there would be no more delays to my release. After release 45. After my release, I went to the homes of Christian friends and house-church members, and we prayed together, but we didn’t have any training sessions, as we had promised. The interrogator called me four or five times after my release. But whenever he called, I gave him an excuse about being busy studying and learning for university exams, though I’m sure he knew that really I was just looking for an excuse to avoid a summons. 46. I only once went to the Shahriar MOIS office, to pick up what had been confiscated. There, my interrogator made me a strange offer: he asked me to work for them. He said: “We are aware of your financial and employment problems and know you could be a great asset for us. So go to the homes of the other members we haven’t arrested and spend time with them and pray together; then give us their names and addresses, and we’ll give you five million tomans [approx. $1,500] for a start.” In order not to create any problems, I told him to let me think about it. He agreed and asked me to be available via phone. 47. After a while, he called me and said: “We heard that you gathered in a sandwich shop and prayed together.” I said: “Thank God that this fellowship took place, but I didn’t hear about it and wasn’t there.” Later I found out that some Christians had indeed gathered in that sandwich shop and prayed together, and from this we learned that they had spies who gave them reliable information. Expulsion from university 48. When I was in prison, the interrogator had told me: “If you don’t cooperate with us, all your work opportunities and even your university education in Iran will be over.” But I hadn’t really thought the MOIS would inform the university about my arrest and security file. I had completed my diploma at another university, and at that time I was studying accounting at the Islamic Azad University of Qods City in Tehran. But due to the interference of the intelligence officials, unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to pass the six credits required to receive my final degree. Fleeing Iran 49. Although my bail was set at 70 million tomans, the value of the property document that my father deposited was more than 150 million tomans [approx. $45,000]. My father put a lot of pressure on me because of this property deed, which was in the possession of the government. And everywhere I went, one or two cars followed me, and my phone calls were tapped, which made me paranoid. Even when I went to buy new clothes, I felt like they were watching and listening to my every move. 50. I struggled with the mental pressure of it all. The most stressful moment for me was when someone knocked on the door, and I went to open it. Even if the person standing on the other side was my best friend, the experience made me feel very nervous and disorientated. Unconsciously, I would experience a déjà vu of the scene when I opened the door and agents had entered and arrested me. In the winter of 2018, I attended the trauma seminar of Article18, and I also had many counselling sessions which helped me a lot to get rid of the déjà vus that I suffered from. 51. Finally, on 20 October 2016, because of the post-prison pressure, persecution, and actions of the MOIS, I fled to Turkey. 52. After a court hearing was held, in my absence, at Branch 5 of the Public and Revolutionary Court of Shahriar, my family were called on 7 February 2017 and informed that I had been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, to be served immediately.
Second convert released as part of Islamic Republic anniversary celebrations 20 February 2023 News A second convert serving a long prison sentence for being part of a house-church has been released as part of a wider amnesty of prisoners on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Republic. Hadi Rahimi, known as Moslem, was released last Wednesday, after spending more than a year in prison for “acting against national security” by “spreading ‘Zionist’ Christianity”. The 33-year-old’s release came six days after that of fellow convert Saheb Fadaie, who was also “pardoned” after nearly five years in prison on similar charges. Both men are members of the “Church of Iran” in the northern city of Rasht. Saheb was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison, later reduced to six, while Moslem received a four-year sentence. Moslem, who is a delivery driver, began his prison sentence in January of last year, after handing himself in to Tehran’s Evin Prison so the property deed submitted by a friend to secure his bail may be released. He was one of four converts to receive sentences in August 2020 of between two to five years in prison, including Moslem’s aunt Mehri, who is currently serving a two-year sentence. Each year, the Islamic Republic announces a wave of pardons to coincide with particular events – for example in October last year, when Christian converts Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh and Fariba Dalir were pardoned on the occasion of Muhammad’s birth. However, as noted in Article18’s latest annual report, released yesterday, “such pardons, while welcome, do not address the original injustice of their sentencing, and imprisonment and the government continues to regard rights and freedoms guaranteed in international law as crimes, including the right to freely adopt a religion of one’s choice, and to manifest one’s faith in community with others”.