Five Christians have been arrested during a raid by 15 intelligence agents on a private garden in Firoozkooh, east of Tehran.

The raid took place on the morning of Friday 26 August, when five of the approximately 15 Christians present were arrested.

The names of those arrested are: Amin Afshar-Naderi, Hadi Asgari, Amir-Saman Dashti, Mohammad Dehnavi, and Ramiel Bet-Tamraz, son of Iranian-Assyrian pastor Victor Bet-Tamraz. 

Amin, who was last arrested alongside Pastor Victor and fellow Christian convert Kavian Fallah-Mohammadi during a Christmas celebration in 2014, was beaten for protesting against the illegal entry of the intelligence agents into the property.

The five Christians were then transferred to Evin detention centre, from where at least one of them was able to call their family the following day to let them know where they were being held.

They have been verbally accused of engaging in “evangelistic activity” through membership of a house-church, but no court hearing has yet taken place.

The families of those arrested have expressed concern that Ministry of Intelligence officials, for lack of sufficient evidence to convict the defendants of the Christmas 2014 arrests, would pressure them into testifying against one another.