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Two brothers remain missing more than a month after their arrest at a Christmas gathering near Isfahan.

Mahmoud Mardani-Kharaji, 53, and his brother Mansour, 46, were with around eight other Christians at a house-church meeting in Fooladshahr on 22 December when the celebration was raided by plainclothes officials, who showed no warrant and did not state which agency they came from.

Iranian Christian website Mohabat News, which reported the news earlier today, explained to Article18 that Mansour and Mahmoud’s family members, not knowing which agency was responsible for their arrest, have only been threatened and mocked by the local officials they have spoken to, as they have anxiously sought information about their loved ones.

It is not uncommon for Christians in Iran to be held incommunicado for a few days before being able to contact their families, but it is unusual for them to be held for so long without any word.

The only recent examples of incommunicado detention of Iranian Christians extending as long as a month were Mary Mohammadi in January–February 2020 and Ayoob Poor-Rezazadeh in September–October 2021.

Both were eventually released, but this will not ease the fears of Mansour and Mahmoud’s families at this time.

Last week, Iran was once again ranked among the top-10 worst persecutors of Christians on the annual World Watch List by Open Doors International.

Tomorrow, Article18 will publish its latest annual report, in collaboration with Open Doors, CSW and Middle East Concern, highlighting the myriad ways in which the rights of Christians in Iran continue to be violated, in spite of regime figures repeated claims to the contrary.

Two Christian converts have been released from prison at the conclusion of their one-year prison sentences for belonging to a house-church, but one of them now faces two years’ exile.

Sasan Khosravi, who is 36 years old, and Habib Heydari, who turned 40 just last week, were released from Bushehr Central Prison this morning.

They had begun their sentences in February last year, but were sent on leave from prison in March, which was extended on numerous occasions until they were finally summoned back to prison in November to serve the remainder of their sentences behind bars.

Now, while there is joy at the two Christians’ release, Sasan faces imminent internal exile, during which time he will not be permitted to seek employment within his specialist profession: the hospitality sector.

It is not yet known where Sasan, who is a hotel manager, will be sent for his term of exile, but it is expected to be far away from his home in Bushehr.

The two other Iranian Christians who have endured internal exile in recent years, Ebrahim Firouzi and Youhan Omidi, were both sent more than 1,000km from their homes.

Sasan is expected to journey into the uncertainty of life in exile with his wife Marjan and their two children – a four-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter – as well as Sasan’s mother Khatoon, who is in her sixties and was among the group of eight Christians arrested back in July 2019.

Following their arrests, seven of the Christians – all except Sasan’s mother – were charged with “acting against national security”, “gathering and collusion against the state”, and “membership of an illegal organisation” (house-church), and in June 2020 they received sentences ranging from prison and exile to work restrictions and fines.

Sasan and brother Sam were each sentenced to one year in prison, followed by two years’ exile. Habib also received a one-year prison sentence, but no exile or work restrictions, while a fourth man, Pooriya Peyma, received a 91-day sentence, which he served last year.

Meanwhile, Sam, Sasan and Pooriya’s wives – Maryam, Marjan, and Fatemeh – were fined, while Maryam was banned for life from working for any national institution, including the hospital at which she had worked for 20 years.

Just two weeks after the release on bail of nine Christian converts, pending a review of their case ordered by Iran’s Supreme Court, one of them is already back in prison – thanks to a ruling by a different branch of that same Supreme Court.

Abdolreza Ali-Haghnejad, known as Matthias, has been the subject of multiple arrests dating back to 2006, and his latest detention relates to a previous six-year prison sentence which was overturned on appeal back in December 2014.

His alleged crime?

“Propagating Christianity.”

Now, more than seven years after his acquittal, on Saturday 15 January Matthias was summoned suddenly to the “Office for the Execution of Judgments” in his home city of Bandar Anzali, north Iran, and told he was to be transferred immediately back to Anzali Prison – from which he was released on 30 December – after a Supreme Court judge had overruled the seven-year-old appeal court ruling.

And perhaps the most astounding element of Matthias’ sudden re-arrest and imprisonment is the similarity of the charge in both the old case, of which he was once acquitted, and the new, which was sent for a review just two months ago.

In his ruling on 3 November 2021, a Supreme Court judge stated that “merely preaching Christianity, and promoting the ‘Evangelical Zionist sect’, both of which apparently means propagating Christianity through family gatherings [house-churches], is not a manifestation of gathering and collusion to disrupt the security of the country, whether internally or externally”.

Therefore, the judge concluded, a Revolutionary Court should not have sentenced Matthias and eight other Christians to five years each in prison.

But now a different judge from a different branch of that same Supreme Court has called into question a seven-year-old acquittal because this very same activity – “propagating Christianity” – has in fact been found to have deserved the punishment originally decreed.

There had been hope that November’s Supreme Court ruling may eventually pave the way for Iranian Christians no longer having to fear arrest only for gathering together to worship or sharing (“propagating”) their faith.

Today’s news gives a clear signal that such a softening of the regime’s overall approach to Christian converts remains highly unlikely.

An Iranian Christian prisoner of conscience is mourning the death of his only child.

Mehdi (Yasser) Akbari, who was a single parent, was informed on 28 December that his 18-year-old son, Amir Ali, who had underlying health issues, had passed away in the care facility where he had been living since his father’s imprisonment in June 2020. 

The Christian prisoner of conscience was given five days’ leave from 1 January, but by that time his son’s funeral had already taken place.

Yasser’s leave was later extended to 10 days, but he was forced to return to Tehran’s Evin Prison earlier today.

The news comes as Iranians have been reacting angrily on social media to the death of another prisoner of conscience, writer Baktash Abtin, who contracted Covid-19 in Evin.

Baktash’s “crime” was to exercise his right to freedom of speech, for which he was convicted of “actions against national security” and sentenced to six years in prison.

Yasser’s “crime” was to exercise his right to freedom of religion by converting to Christianity and joining a house-church, for which he was also convicted of “acting against national security” and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Both ended up in Evin, arriving there just months apart. Now Baktash has lost his life, and Yasser his only child.

When will Iran stop imprisoning its citizens only for exercising their rights?

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

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

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

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

Their appeals were rejected in September 2020.

The others remain free on bail, for now.

Background 

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

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

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

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

The lawyer of a Christian convert who has spent nearly four years in prison for “acting against national security” by being part of a house-church has asked what danger the release of his 60-year-old client could pose.

Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh is one of the longest serving Christian prisoners of conscience, having begun his 10-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison on 20 January 2018.

Since then, he has petitioned on numerous occasions for a retrial or conditional release, but on every occasion has been rejected, despite emotional pleas from his elderly mother to see her son again.

His lawyer, Iman Soleimani, submitted yet another petition for a retrial earlier this week, and told Article18 that none of the charges for which his client was sentenced to 10 years in prison had been substantiated.

Mr Soleimani added that he had based his new petition on the recent ruling of the Supreme Court, which found that nine Christian converts sentenced to five years in prison should not have been convicted of “actions against national security”. 

Mr Soleimani also referenced the recent decision of a prosecutor in Dezful not to charge eight converts with “propaganda”, ruling that “they have merely converted to a different religion and have not carried out any propaganda against another group”.

The lawyer also expressed concern about the health of his client.

In a message from prison at Christmas, Nasser said he hoped “this year’s Christmas gift from God to all the persecuted Christians will be freedom and dignity”.

He added: “I cannot say that everything is fine, because the situation is getting worse every day. Our days here are repetitive. 

“But in spite of all this, God has given me peace in my heart … and I am still joyful in the Lord, even if there aren’t many obvious reasons to rejoice, or even if the situation gets much worse than this.”