Adopt a Prisoner

Give Hope!

"Remember those in prison as though you were together with them"
(Hebrews 13:3)

Many of the Christians who have spent time in prison in Iran have later shared with us that they felt completely abandoned after their arrest, and cut off from the world and their families. Interrogators will do their best to break the resolve - and faith - of these Christians, through intimidation and insults, and even threats to their families. Sometimes, the result of all this can be a total loss of hope. Therefore, we are inviting you, as an individual or church group, to consider adopting one of these prisoners: committing to remember them in your prayers, to stay updated on the details of their case, and to advocate publicly for their release. Doing so may just provide that prisoner with the encouragement they need to persevere through their trial.

Sasan Khosravi

Sasan, a Christian convert, is now serving a two-year term of exile from his city of Bushehr, having already served a one-year prison sentence for being part of a house-church.

Sasan was one of eight Christians arrested in July 2019, including his wife Marjan, mother Khatoon, brother Sam, and sister-in-law Maryam.

In June 2020, seven of the Christians - all except Khatoon - received a range of sentences from prison and exile to fines and work restrictions.

Sasan and Sam were sentenced to one year in prison, followed by a two-year exile from Bushehr, which included a ban on working in their specialist profession – the hospitality sector.

In January 2021, their appeals were rejected, and Sasan began serving his sentence on 9 February 2021.

A month later, he was released on furlough for 10 days, which was then extended. However, Sasan was later told he must return to prison to complete his sentence, and did so on 11 November 2021.

Sasan was released from prison on 20 January 2022, but is now in exile.

Joseph Shahbazian

Joseph, an Iranian-Armenian pastor, is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison for holding church services in his home.

The pastor was among at least 35 Christians arrested or interrogated by intelligence agents belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a coordinated operation over two days and across three cities in the summer of 2020.

Joseph and six Christian converts were eventually sentenced in June 2022 - Joseph to 10 years, two women, Mina Khajavi and Malihe Nazari, to six years each, and four others to between one and four years.

However, these four - mother and daughter Masoumeh Ghasemi and Somayeh (Sonya) Sadegh, two men, Farhad Khazaee and Salar Eshraghi Moghadam - were permitted to pay fines instead of serving time in prison.

Joseph began serving his sentence on 30 August 2022, having been summoned the previous day and given 24 hours to hand himself in.

Mina was also summoned but, after taking herself to Evin Prison, was permitted to return home until she has recovered from a recently broken leg.

Mehri Behjati

Sakine (Mehri) Behjati was arrested in February 2020 alongside her nephew, Hadi (Moslem) Rahimi, and fellow Christian converts Ramin Hassanpour and wife Kathrin (Saeede) Sajadpour.

On 14 May 2020, they were taken to Lakan Prison after being unable to afford the bail set for them – of 500 million tomans (around $30,000) by Branch 10 of the Revolutionary Court in Rasht.

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

On 1 August 2020, the Christians were sentenced to between two and five years in prison for “acting against national security” by belonging to a house-church and “spreading Zionist Christianity”.

Ramin was given a five-year sentence, Moslem four years, and Mehri and Saeede two years.

Their appeals were rejected in September 2020.

On 9 January 2022, Moslem left behind his nine-month-old daughter to begin serving his four-year sentence at Tehran’s Evin Prison so that the property deed submitted by a friend to secure his bail may be released.

A month later, the three other Christians were told they must hand themselves in to the authorities in Tehran by the end of February.

Mehri was later permitted an additional six weeks at home, in order to be able to spend the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, with her family. She began serving her sentence on 16 April 2022.
Moslem and Mehri’s applications for a retrial at the Supreme Court were rejected.

Mehdi Akbari

Mehdi (Yasser) Akbari was arrested alongside fellow Christian converts Fatemeh Sharifi, Simin Soheilinia and Mehdi Roohparvar during coordinated raids on their homes by intelligence agents in January 2019 in the Ariashahr area of Tehran.

They were then all transferred to Evin Prison, where they were placed in solitary confinement and interrogated for 30 days, before being released on bail of 800 million tomans ($62,500 at the time) on 18 March 2019.

They were tried on 16 June 2020 at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of “acting against national security” and “forming an illegal evangelical Christian group”.

Four months later they were sentenced at the same branch - Yasser, Fatemeh and Simin were given 10-year sentences, and Mehdi Roohparvar five.

The judge, Mohammad Moghiseh, spoke obscenely to the Christians and would not listen to their defence, only citing the report of the intelligence agent.

He then increased their bail to 7 billion tomans ($220,000).

The two women were later freed on bail, but the men were transferred to Evin Prison and their sentences were communicated to them there on 17 October 2020.

They have appealed.

Abdolreza Ali (Matthias) Haghnejad

Matthias and eight other Christian converts from the northern city of Rasht - Hossein Kadivar, Khalil Dehghanpour, Kamal Naamanian, Mohammad Vafadar, Shahrooz Eslamdoust, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Mehdi Khatibi, and Behnam Akhlaghi - were arrested in January and February 2019.

Seven of the men were released on bail in March 2019, but Matthias and Shahrooz were detained.

In July 2019, Matthias, Shahrooz, Behnam, Babak and Mehdi had their bail increased tenfold - to the equivalent of $130,000 each - after insisting upon being defended by their own lawyer. Being unable and unprepared to pay such an amount, they were transferred to Ward 4 of Tehran’s Evin Prison.

The other four decided to defend themselves and were therefore released on their pre-existing bail (the equivalent of $13,000 each) until their next hearing, when the judge accused them of promoting Zionism and said the Bible had been falsified.

In October 2019, all nine men were sentenced to five years in prison for “acting against national security”. Their appeals were rejected following a hearing in February 2020.

In November 2021, the Supreme Court ordered a review of their case, ruling 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.”

The Christians were released a month later, pending the result of the review, and on 28 February 2022 they were all acquitted. However, on 15 January 2022 Matthias had been sent back to prison to serve a previous six-year sentence - of which he had been acquitted seven years previously - following the intervention of a different Supreme Court judge. And on 14 February 2022, Behnam and Babak were handed new charges of "propaganda against the state".

Ayoob Poor-Rezazadeh

Ayoob and his two friends Morteza Mashoodkari and Ahmad Sarparast were first arrested during raids on a house-church and another private home on 5 September 2021 in Rasht, northern Iran.

The three men - all members of the “Church of Iran” were then taken away to an unknown location.

It later transpired that they were being held in a detention centre belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Two weeks later, Ahmad and Morteza were transferred to Lakan Prison, then released on bail.

However, there was no news about Ayoob's situation or whereabouts until his release on bail from Lakan Prison on 3 October.

On 25 January 2022, the three men were charged under the amended Article 500 of the penal code with “engaging in propaganda and educational activities for deviant beliefs contrary to the holy Sharia”.

They denied the charges, saying they were “just Christians worshipping according to the Bible” and "did not engage in any propaganda against the regime or any action against national security".

But on 9 April 2022, Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court of Rasht sentenced them to five years in prison. They were also fined 18 million tomans (around $750).

While awaiting for the outcome of their appeal, the three men were arrested again in May 2022.

Their appeals were eventually rejected in June 2022, and in July they were told they must return to court to face a second trial on identical charges.

They gave their second “final defence” via video link from Lakan Prison on 5 July 2022, stating that they wanted to be “dealt with according to the constitution”, under which Christianity is a recognised minority faith.

Ahmad Sarparast

Ahmad and his two friends Ayoob Poor-Rezazadeh and Morteza Mashoodkari were first arrested during raids on a house-church and another private home on 5 September 2021 in Rasht, northern Iran.