‘We want to be the voice of Iranian Christian converts to the international community’ 7 June 2021 News The group’s latest protest took place outside the Iranian embassy in Stockholm on 1 June. A group of Iranian Christian converts now living in Sweden say they want to be the voice of their fellow converts to the international community. One of the organisers of the “I am a Christian too” campaign, which has staged regular protest rallies in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, since October 2020, told Article18 they want to “be the voice of this sector of the Iranian society that the government is trying to marginalise, silence and isolate”. Speaking after the group’s latest protest outside the Iranian embassy in Stockholm last week, Amir Hossein Jaafari said: “We want to raise awareness and ask the Swedish government and international human rights community to make the Iranian State accountable for rights violations of religious minorities, and particularly Iranian Christian converts.” Mr Jaafari further called on Sweden to “stop its contradiction between words and actions, by holding the religious government of Iran accountable for violating human rights, and also working hard to inform the Swedish society about the deplorable human rights situation in Iran”. “In particular, we ask the Swedish government to prioritise the human rights of religious minorities in Iran over Sweden’s economic interests,” he said. He noted that “the persecution of the Iranian converts continues and, according to reports, in recent months, two Iranian Christians were flogged for drinking wine as part of Communion, others were denied education or employment, and one couple were told they could no longer retain custody of their adopted daughter on account of their faith.” The group’s protests have been covered by international Persian-speaking media outlets including Radio Farda and Iran International. And Mr Jaafari said their persistence in spite of Covid-19 restrictions has meant that “today more Iranian Christians from Stockholm and even surrounding cities have joined the campaign”. The protesters also marched from a main Stockholm square to the parliament. Christianity is a recognised minority religion in Iran, but Christian converts aren’t recognised as Christians and are prohibited from attending the services of Iran’s recognised ethnic Armenian and Assyrian Christians. As a result, Iran’s converts, of whom there are believed to be at least several hundred thousand, have to choose between practising their faith alone at home, or taking the risk to join a house-church, which the Iranian regime refers to as “enemy groups” with “anti-security purposes”. (In reality, house-churches look very similar to the “house groups” Christians around the world belong to, simply providing a place for Christians to meet together to worship and pray.) These house-churches are regularly raided by intelligence agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence or Revolutionary Guard Corps, and members arrested and charged with “actions against national security”. There are currently at least 20 Iranian Christians in prison or exile as a result of their membership of a house-church. Several others are awaiting the result of court cases against them, while many more have fled abroad to avoid imprisonment or the threat of further persecution.
Convert begins prison sentence for ‘promoting Christianity’ 4 June 2021 News An Iranian Christian convert has begun serving his nine-month prison sentence for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic by promoting evangelical Christianity”. Reza Zaeemi, 40, handed himself in to the authorities at the Karaj Central Prison on Wednesday, 2 June, after receiving a summons last month. He initially went to the prison a week earlier, but was told to come back another time, as no judge was available to receive him. Reza was arrested on the street outside his home on 27 November 2020. He was blindfolded and handcuffed, then taken to an unknown location, where he was interrogated for four hours, before being transferred to a detention centre belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. After two days, he was taken to the prosecutor’s office, where the charge of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” was read out to him. Reza was then taken back to the Revolutionary Guard detention centre for a further eight days, before being transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison. A week later, he was released on bail of 60 million tomans (around $2,750). He was not allowed to call his family for the first eight days of his 17 days in detention. On 25 January 2021, Reza was sentenced to 18 months in prison at the 4th Branch of the Revolutionary Court in Karaj, but on 25 April an appeals court reduced his sentence by half. He also faces a two-year travel ban following his release. Article18’s advocacy director, Mansour Borji, said: “It is quite clear from the charges against Reza that he is being sent to prison only because of his religious beliefs, in spite of the regime’s repeated claims that ‘no-one is imprisoned on account of their beliefs in Iran’. “We call on the Iranian government to immediately revoke this sentence and to explain why, contrary to its claims, Christian converts and other unrecognised religious minorities continue to be prosecuted and imprisoned for no other reason than their personal beliefs, in violation of the international covenants to which Iran is a party, and also of Iran’s constitution, which states that ‘no-one may be molested or taken to task for holding a particular belief’.” A second Christian convert was also arrested and sentenced alongside Reza but did not want to publicise his case.
Christian convert recognised as refugee, can’t be sent back to Iran 3 June 2021 News Bigan Farokhpour Haghighi with his wife, Marzieh, and their 17-year-old son Sina. An Iranian Christian convert who was facing the threat of imminent deportation from Turkey has been granted protected status as a recognised refugee. Bigan Farokhpour Haghighi, who will celebrate his 49th birthday on Sunday, was yesterday released after more than a month’s detention in a camp in the southern Turkish city of Antalya, from which it was feared he would be forcibly flown back to Iran. But yesterday the asylum-seeker was informed that he had been granted protected status, following his interview with immigration officials the day before, and this morning he received his new identity card, confirming his new status as a refugee. In coming to this decision, the Turkish immigration authorities stated that they recognised Bigan’s life could be in danger were he to return to Iran. Bigan has previously spent nine months in prison because of his conversion to Christianity and subsequent membership of a house-church, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison. He has been in Turkey since 2018, when he, his wife Marzieh, and their 17-year-old son, Sina, who is a paraplegic, applied for asylum with the UNHCR. They have since been based in Denizli, 220km northwest of Antalya, but in December 2019 Bigan was told he was to be deported because of an alleged failure to sign in at his local police station for three consecutive months. Bigan denied the claims and even asked the officials to check the cameras on the dates he had attended, but they refused and his three subsequent appeals were rejected – including, most recently, by Turkey’s Supreme Court. A month after the deportation order, Bigan told the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center that he had only been released from prison on the condition he never returned. “You have to leave Iran or we will arrest you again,” Bigan was told. “… We know your family is in Turkey. We even know which city they’re in. We know all this. If you leave the country, you won’t have a problem, but if you stay and make a mistake, we will sentence you to prison many times over. Let this be a reminder! We accept your conditional release on these terms! Sign it!” In the same interview, Bigan said he was scared of what may happen to his wife and paraplegic son were he to be deported. For the last month, he has been separated from them, and fearing deportation any day. Now, he can finally return home to be reunited with them and celebrate his birthday together on Sunday. One new challenge has arisen, however; though his family reside in Denizli, Bigan has been told he must make the three-hour trip to Antalya every month to renew his refugee permit. But, for now, he and his family are counting their blessings. Bigan and Marzieh told Article18 simply: “We thank all the people who have cared for us at this difficult time, and praise God for them.”
Prison deadline looms for Parkinson’s sufferer and wife 27 May 2021 News An Iranian Christian convert with advanced Parkinson’s disease and his wife have been told they must submit themselves to Tehran’s Evin Prison by 15 June. Homayoun Zhaveh, 62, and Sara Ahmadi, 43, face two and eight years in prison, respectively, for belonging to a house-church. Christianity is a recognised minority religion in Iran, but converts like Homayoun and Sara aren’t recognised as Christians and are prohibited from attending the services of Iran’s recognised ethnic Armenian and Assyrian Christians. As a result, Iran’s converts, of whom there are believed to be at least several hundred thousand, have to choose between practising their faith alone at home, or taking the risk to join a house-church, which the Iranian regime refers to as “enemy groups” with “anti-security purposes”. (In reality, house-churches look very similar to the “house groups” Christians around the world belong to, simply providing a place for Christians to meet together to worship and pray.) It is within this context that Homayoun and Sara were sentenced to prison in November 2020. They were also banned from foreign travel or membership of any social or political group for two years after their release, and given six months’ community service at a centre for the mentally disabled. Sara was in fact sentenced to 11 years in prison in all – eight years for leadership of the church, and three years for membership – but in December 2020 an appeal-court judge ruled that Sara must serve only the longer sentence of eight years and not also the three-year sentence. (The judge was enforcing a legal norm in Iran whereby if a person faces two charges of a similar nature, for the same action, only the one with the higher penalty stands.) Sara and Homayoun received a summons to begin their sentences back in March, but their lawyer filed for a retrial with the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court acknowledged receipt of the letter, but this did not mean their case would necessarily be heard. And on 16 May, those responsible for securing the couple’s release on bail received a written warning that if Sara and Homayoun did not appear at Evin Prison within 30 days, the property deeds they had submitted as collateral would be forfeited. Sara and Homayoun’s bank accounts have since been frozen. The couple’s only hope now is that the Supreme Court takes on their case, or at least agrees to allow Homayoun to pay a fine instead of going to prison, owing to his ill health. But even were this to happen and Sara still had to go to prison, Homayoun would lose not only his wife but also his primary carer. Article18’s advocacy director Mansour Borji said: “We call on the Iranian authorities to overturn this cruel and unjust sentence. We also call on the international community to be the voice for this Christian couple, and to apply maximum pressure on the Iranian regime until it ceases to persecute innocent citizens like Homayoun and Sara for the peaceful practice of their beliefs.”
Christian converts charged under Iran’s newly amended ‘propaganda’ law 12 May 2021 News Left to right: Milad Goodarzi, Amin Khaki, and Alireza Nourmohammadi. Three Christian converts in Fardis, near Tehran, have become the first known examples of Christians being charged under the contentious recent amendments to the Iranian penal code. Amin Khaki, Milad Goodarzi and Alireza Nourmohammadi, who have already spent time in prison for their Christian activities, have been charged in the past two weeks with “engaging in propaganda that educates in a deviant way contrary to the holy religion of Islam” – wording lifted directly from the newly amended Article 500 of the penal code. They were each forced to submit bail of 250 million tomans (around $12,000) and told they must report weekly to the intelligence branch of Iran’s police force for the next six months. The fresh charges against Amin, Milad and Alireza follow coordinated raids by intelligence agents on their homes, and on the homes of nine other Christian families in Fardis, in November 2020. None of the Christians were arrested at that time, but many of their personal belongings were confiscated – including phones, laptops, Bibles, Christian literature and anything else to do with Christianity. The Christian items have not been returned. Then in the space of two weeks in January and February 2021, a member of each family was summoned for interrogation and ordered to sign commitments to refrain from meeting together – either in person or online. As Article18 noted at the time, Iranian Christians are routinely asked during interrogations to sign commitments to refrain from gathering together in house-churches, but this was the first known example of intelligence officials demanding they sign a commitment to have no further social engagements together at all, including online. And once again, it was a direct result of the newly amended Article 500, which prohibits “psychological manipulation” or so-called “mind control” by members of “sects” – in the “real or virtual sphere”, i.e. in person or online. When the Christians refused to sign the commitments, they were threatened with long prison sentences and told it would be better for them if they left the country. And while only Amin, Milad and Alireza have so far been officially charged, the other Christians have also been threatened with imprisonment or other ramifications, such as employment restrictions. Background The controversial amendments to Article 500 and also 499 – which relates to membership or organisation of “anti-security groups” – were ratified by Iran’s Guardian Council in March, having been signed into law by President Hassan Rouhani in February. They were initially proposed in Iran’s parliament in May last year, but were twice rejected by the Guardian Council, which must approve all bills. Ever since the amendments were proposed, rights groups including Article18 warned they could be used to further clamp down on unrecognised religious minorities, including Christian converts, as the two articles were already routinely used in the prosecution of converts. ARTICLE 19, an organisation dedicated to the protection of freedom of speech, called the changes to Article 500 in particular “a full-on attack on the right to freedom of religion and belief”. And Article18’s advocacy director, Mansour Borji, labelled both amendments “a catastrophe” and “disservice to justice”, which will “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”. He added that the new amendments would be “celebrated by Iran’s intelligence agencies, who are always in the background in court cases against Christians, pressuring judges to impose the harshest possible sentence”. Human rights lawyer Hossein Ahmadiniaz had previously warned that the amendments would “facilitate the repression and punishment of Christian converts and others belonging to unrecognised religious groups”. Meanwhile, Hamid Gharagozloo from the International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights (IOPHR) cautioned: “By making it a crime to be part of a sect, and banning a group as a ‘sect’, it gives them an open hand to crush any form of uprising or dissatisfaction with the government… Any form of defiance will be labelled as a ‘sect’, and then it will be punishable by law.”
Foster mother to 12 girls forced out of Iran for ‘leading them away from Islam’ 8 May 2021 Features Bita and the 12 girls she looked after for over a decade and who she still refers to as her “daughters”. Foster mother Bita Rezaee was known as “auntie” to the 12 girls she had looked after for over a decade when she was arrested in April 2015. Her only biological child, Sam, was asleep when five agents from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence stormed into their home in Shahin Shahr, near Isfahan, and took Bita away. It was the day before Sam’s fifth birthday, and he was so traumatised by the incident that he was still visibly affected weeks later. And why was his mother arrested? Because Bita is a Christian convert, who had set up a refuge for vulnerable young girls – aged between six and nine when they first arrived – which the intelligence agents alleged had been purchased with the help of “foreign Christians”, with the “aim of leading the girls away from Islam”. Bita strongly denied the claims, telling the agents she had “introduced the girls to the way of Christian forgiveness and love, without mentioning the name of Jesus Christ”, but her protestations fell on deaf ears. The refuge was forcibly closed and the girls – abused or rejected daughters – were sent into state care, from which several of them later ran away. Meanwhile, Bita spent much of the next year in prison, while Sam had to live with her estranged husband. Bita and Sam are now seeking asylum in Germany. Bita was initially detained for three months – half of which was spent in solitary confinement – in the notorious “A.T.” ward of Isfahan’s Dastgerd Prison. And during this time, Bita told Article18 she “endured a lot of psychological pressure”. “For example, in the middle of the night a man wearing only underwear would come into my cell and throw a blanket into the room,” she explained. “I was very scared that he was going to abuse me. “I was taken, blindfolded and handcuffed, for interrogation. They kicked me hard in the chair several times, and I fell to the ground. “I was interrogated for long hours. Because I didn’t have a watch, I didn’t know exactly how long they were interrogating me, but the interrogation started early in the morning, then at around noon, when I was extremely tired, they left the interrogation room to rest and I was left alone. Then they returned and the interrogations continued. “They kept asking the same questions, loudly and violently. And when I didn’t give the desired answer, they increased the pressure. “They wanted to get me to confess that I had ‘apostatised’ the children, preached and taught Christianity, and received financial support from other countries. “Sometimes a question was repeated 20 times and I had to write the answer 20 times.” Bita was eventually released on bail, but a week later she was detained again – this time in Isfahan’s Dolatabad Prison, where she was held for a further three months, mostly in solitary confinement. “The interrogators wanted to know more about how I’d set up the refuge, and where I’d got the money,” she explained. “They thought we were funded by churches in America.” Finally, one day, Bita’s name was surprisingly read out among the prisoners who would be released that day, but before the year was out, in December 2015, Bita was imprisoned for a third time – again in Dolatabad Prison – for another three months. “During all this time I was not allowed to get a lawyer,” Bita explained. “But anyway the lawyers I spoke to about my case were reluctant to accept my representation because my case was a ‘security’ case and the prosecutor was the Ministry of Intelligence.” Bita was finally released in March 2016, having been forced to sign a commitment to refrain from engaging in any kind of work – whether involving children or not – ever again. For the next two years, Bita was regularly summoned for interrogation, asked about her activities, and warned that she was being watched. “They asked me about a particular Christian pastor,” Bita told Article18. “I was asked to contact this person and take the names of Persian-speaking believers from him and pass them on to the intelligence agents. Basically, I was asked to spy on my faithful brothers in church. I didn’t accept their offer, and they threatened to detain me again if I didn’t cooperate.” During one interrogation, when Bita was blindfolded, the agent kicked the chair from beneath her feet, and her head smacked against the wall, leaving her with a nasty eye injury. When her father saw the wound, he told her it was time for her to leave Iran. Though Bita initially resisted, she explained that even after the case against her was closed and her bail returned to her, “the security agents kept calling me regularly and asking various questions: ‘Where are you now? What are you doing?’ And they repeatedly warned me that ‘You are not allowed to do any work or activity, not even as the secretary of an office, until you return to Islam and prove that you are a Muslim.’” Finally, in April 2018, three years after her initial arrest and just a few days before Sam’s eighth birthday, Bita and Sam flew to Germany, where they are now seeking asylum. Sam is now 11 and is excelling in his new school, while Bita is now “auntie” to the children of many other refugee families. Their asylum claims have not yet been accepted, but Bita is hopeful that she and Sam can forge a new life for themselves in Germany. Perhaps in time she may even be able to work with children again. But Bita is often tearful as she talks about the “daughters” and beloved homeland that she was forced to leave behind. “After my release, I had to hide my Bible somewhere every night, so that if the agents came to arrest me, they wouldn’t be able to find it,” Bita explained. “I couldn’t do any work or any other activities. “Because I was constantly under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, I finally forced myself to leave Iran.”
Iranian Christian convert faces deportation from Turkey, separation from paraplegic son 7 May 2021 News Bigan Farokhpour Haghighi with his son, Sina, who is 17 years old. An Iranian Christian convert faces imminent deportation from Turkey, which would separate him from his wife and paraplegic son and risk his re-arrest and imprisonment. Bigan Farokhpour Haghighi, who is 48 years old, is currently in a camp in Antalya, southwest Turkey, awaiting deportation, having failed with his appeals to two Turkish courts. He was taken to the camp on Thursday last week, 29 April, even though he still awaits the result of a third appeal – to the Supreme Court in Ankara – against the December 2019 verdict. The deportation notice was served because of Bigan’s alleged failure to sign at a local police station in their resident city of Denizli for three consecutive months – something he denies. His wife, Marzieh, told Article18 that Bigan had even asked the officials to check the cameras on the dates he attended, but that they responded that they could not do so. Bigan and Marzieh have been together in Turkey with their son, Sina, who is 17, since 2018, when they applied for asylum with the UNHCR as a result of the persecution they had faced in Iran as Christian converts. They initially applied for asylum years earlier, with Bigan facing a three-year prison sentence for his membership of a house-church. But when they learned that the lawyer defending Bigan was going to have his licence revoked, and that the elderly couple who had paid for Bigan’s bail were going to lose their house, Bigan felt compelled to return. “I returned to Iran because of my humanity and faith,” he explained in a January 2020 interview with the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. “It was not right in God’s sight for me to want to stay with my family in Turkey and have the house documents of an old man and woman, who were really not in a very good condition. If I stayed in Turkey, their house would be 100% confiscated.” So Bigan returned to Iran and submitted himself to Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz. He was released on parole nine months later on the condition that he leave Iran immediately. “You have to leave Iran or we will arrest you again,” Bigan was told. “Like your other friends who were arrested again. You will face heavier sentences and deportation!” “We know your family is in Turkey,” his interrogators added. “We even know which city they’re in. We know all this. If you leave the country, you won’t have a problem, but if you stay and make a mistake, we will sentence you to prison many times over. Let this be a reminder! We accept your conditional release on these terms! Sign it!” So Bigan did sign, received his parole, left the prison – and Iran – and joined his family in Denizli. Bigan with his wife, Marzieh, and their son Sina. But now he faces the threat of another enforced separation from his family and return to Iran, and all the dangers that may entail, including Bigan’s promised re-arrest and imprisonment. Bigan has gone on the record as saying he converted to Christianity because of the “suffocating” pressure of the Iranian regime, and he has already been sentenced to 50 lashes for his conversion – a sentence that was eventually changed to a hefty fine. The judge who sentenced him in 2013, at the revolutionary court in Shiraz, Seyed Mahmood Sadati, even told him explicitly that Christian converts like Bigan must be “stopped”, and threatened him with a 10-year sentence. “We have no problem with those who inherit religion from their parents being in our country,” Judge Sadati said. “But not those who leave Islam and join other religions. We have a problem with these people, and we must help them and guide them and prevent them from deviating in this way! They are being misled and they are misleading others! “That is why we must stop them – from now on – so that they do not cause others to deviate. The imprisonment of these people and the flogging of this gentleman [Bigan] should be an example for the rest of those who like to change their religion for any reason – that this is not something we can change!” And because Bigan is from a family of direct descent from the prophet Muhammad, the judge mandated that his 50 lashes should be carried out with maximum force, and that his sentence should not be repealed. “The government of the Islamic Republic is completely opposed to those who change their religion … and either become Baha’is, or Christians, or Jews, or Zoroastrians,” Bigan explained in his 2020 interview. “For this reason, the government infiltrates or pursues these converts, in an attempt to destroy them or prevent them from further meetings, because the repetition of these meetings, and the addition of new members to each group, is in a way to the detriment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. That’s why [agents] come and arrest these converts – to put pressure on them, harass them, take their belongings, their money, their jewellery, or anything. And no-one can complain.” Bigan, who was a handicraftsman in Iran, had many of his personal belongings confiscated when he was arrested, including several tools handed down to him by his father, from whom he learned his trade. The tools were never given back, and after his release Bigan’s work permit was revoked, while the medical centre where his son went for treatment refused to care for him any longer. “I was told, ‘Your license has been revoked and you cannot work at all!’” Bigan explained. “I said, ‘So what should I do?’ And the agents said: ‘You can go and buy a taxi!’ I said that I work at home and I love my job and want to continue. They said, ‘If you continue, you will get into trouble again!’” The threat of deportation has been hanging over Bigan since he first arrived in Turkey. In his 2020 interview, Bigan said: “In 2014, I had to send my wife and paraplegic child to Turkey to seek asylum. In my absence, they suffered a lot. If I am deported now, what will be their fate now? “We have many problems in Turkey. Our asylum insurance has been terminated and we do not have a work permit. Wherever they find out that we are Christians, they treat us badly. On the other hand, we are under pressure from the Islamic Republic not to return. We are asking for help.” A petition to stop their deportation has been created through change.org. “Extradition of a political refugee to the country from which he or she fled is prohibited under Article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,” human rights lawyer Hossein Ahmadiniaz told Article18. “As a member of the United Nations, Turkey is a signatory of this and other international conventions and is bound to comply with its rules. If the deportation goes ahead, Turkey should face prosecution by the European Court of Human Rights.”
Convert faces prison for ‘promoting evangelical Christianity’ 30 April 2021 News An Iranian Christian convert is awaiting a summons to begin a nine-month prison sentence for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic by promoting evangelical Christianity”. Reza Zaeemi, who lives in Karaj, was initially sentenced to 18 months in prison following his arrest in November 2020, but on Sunday, 25 April, an appeals court reduced his custodial sentence by half. The 40-year-old also faces a two-year travel ban following his release. The news of Reza’s case, which has not been made public until now, follows the sentencing earlier this month of another Christian convert, Hamed Ashoori, to 10 months in prison – also because of alleged “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”. Both were tried at the 4th Branch of the Revolutionary Court in Karaj. The case against Reza began with his arrest by plainclothes agents on 27 November 2020, on the street outside his home. Reza was blindfolded and handcuffed, then taken to an unknown location, where he was interrogated for four hours, before being transferred to a detention centre belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. After two days, Reza was taken to the prosecutor’s office, where the charge of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” was read out to him. He was then taken back to the Revolutionary Guard detention centre for a further eight days, before being transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison. A week later, he was released on bail of 60 million tomans (around $2,750). Reza was not allowed to call his family for the first eight days of his 17 days in detention. Reza was sentenced on 25 January, but on Sunday, 25 April, though Reza’s appeal was dismissed, his prison sentence was reduced by half. He can now expect a summons to serve his sentence at any moment. Article18’s advocacy director, Mansour Borji, gave this reaction: “It is quite clear from the charges against Reza that he is being sent to prison only because of his religious beliefs, in spite of the regime’s repeated claims that ‘no-one is imprisoned on account of their beliefs in Iran’. “We call on the Iranian government to immediately revoke this sentence and to explain why, contrary to its claims, Christian converts and other unrecognised religious minorities continue to be prosecuted and imprisoned for no other reason than their personal beliefs, in violation of the international covenants to which Iran is a party, and also of Iran’s constitution, which states that ‘no-one may be molested or taken to task for holding a particular belief’.”
Christian converts released on condition they stop meeting together 27 April 2021 News Left to right: Alireza Varak-Shah, Hojjat Lotfi Khalaf, Mohammad Ali (Davoud) Torabi, and Esmaeil Narimanpour. (MEC) Four Christian converts arrested by agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in the southwestern city of Dezful last week have been released without charge but only after they were ordered to sign commitments to have no further involvement in any Christian activities. Hojjat Lotfi Khalaf, Esmaeil Narimanpour, Alireza Varak-Shah, and Mohammad Ali Torabi, also known as Davoud, were released on the evening of 21 April after two days in detention. They were told to expect another summons for interrogation at any time. According to Mohabat News, 10 to 15 other Christian converts have been interrogated over the past week in Dezful and ordered to sign such commitments to refrain from further Christian activities. During the interrogations, the Christians were asked about their political views, and told they must vote in the upcoming presidential elections. (Iran is often accused of having a democracy only in name, and higher voter turnout can help paint the picture of a truly democratic society.) Mohabat News reports that some of the Christians, including Esmaeil, were beaten, and that all of them were told to be ready to appear for further interrogation at a moment’s notice. Article18 understands that their interrogations took place in a local school due to pressures on other facilities as a result of a spike in Covid-19 cases. There are also suggestions the four detained Christians were released earlier than intended as a result of the outbreak. Davoud was detained for over a month after his previous arrest, in October 2017, before being released on bail of 200 million tomans (around $60,000).
Christian convert given 10-month sentence for ‘propaganda against Islamic Republic’ 27 April 2021 News An Iranian Christian convert has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”. Hamed Ashoori, who is 31 years old and lives in Fardis, west of Tehran, was verbally informed of the verdict on 12 April following his final court hearing on 7 March at the 4th Branch of the Revolutionary Court in Karaj. Hamed has received no written confirmation of the verdict, which he intends to appeal, nor has he at any stage been given any information about the names of any of his arresting officers, interrogators or judges. The case against Hamed, which was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, actually dates back to February 2019, though it has not been reported until now. Hamed was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents as he left his home on the morning of 23 February 2019. The intelligence agents proceeded to raid his home and confiscate all Christian items, including Bibles and other literature, as well as computer hard drives. He was then taken to Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj, where he was held in solitary confinement for 10 days, before being transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison, also in Karaj, for another two days. During interrogations, Hamed was offered a large monthly salary if he “cooperated” by becoming an informant against other Christians. When he refused, he was beaten. Hamed was finally released on bail after submitting guarantees in the form of payslips. Hamed and another family member were then forced to attend “re-education” sessions with an Islamic cleric. After four such sessions, Hamed refused to participate in any more, and it was then that the court proceedings against him began.