{"id":1074,"date":"2017-07-23T17:33:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-23T17:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1074"},"modified":"2017-07-23T17:33:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-23T17:33:53","slug":"11-christian-converts-issued-long-prison-sentences-in-iran-in-less-than-two-months-in-sham-trials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1074","title":{"rendered":"11 Christian Converts Issued Long Prison Sentences in Iran in Less Than Two Months in Sham Trials"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge Mashallah Ahmadzadeh on Sentencing Spree Since June 2017<\/p><\/div>\n

July 20, 2017\u2014The Iranian authorities must immediately halt the disturbing trend of arrests and imprisonment of Christians, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.<\/p>\n

In less than two months, since June 2017, Judge Mashallah Ahmadzadeh of Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran has issued long prison sentences to at least 11\u00a0Christian converts<\/a>\u00a0and the former leader of the Assyrian Pentecostal Church in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristians are recognized as an official religious minority in Iran\u2019s\u00a0Constitution<\/a>, but the state continues to persecute members of the faith, especially converts,\u201d said CHRI\u2019s executive director Hadi Ghaemi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state must respect its own laws and international obligations and allow Christians and all religious minorities full freedom of worship,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Article 18 of the\u00a0International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights<\/a>, which Iran ratified in 1975, \u201ceveryone shall have the right to\u00a0freedom\u00a0of thought, conscience and\u00a0religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Islamic Republic views any alternative belief system, especially those seeking converts, as a threat to the prevailing Shia order.<\/p>\n

On July 6, Ahmadzadeh\u00a0sentenced<\/a>\u00a0four Protestant Christian converts to 10 years in prison each in a trial completely lacking due process, according to Mansour Borji, the advocacy director of Article 18, a London-based organization that defends Christians in Iran.<\/p>\n

Yusif Farhadov, Eldar Gurbanov and Bahram Nasibov from Baku in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Iranian national Nasser Navard Goltapeh were arrested by security forces at a reception hosted by their Christian friends in Andisheh on June 24, 2016.<\/p>\n

No evidence was presented to show the defendants had acted against national security, Borji told CHRI, but the four were convicted of being \u201cZionist Christians\u201d who \u201cacted against national security with the intention of overthrowing the state in a soft war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahmadzadeh had already convicted four other Christians of similarly trumped up charges two weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

Charged with \u201cassembly and collusion against national security\u201d for organizing home churches and preaching \u201cZionist Christianity,\u201d\u00a0Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani,\u00a0<\/a>Mohammad Reza (Yasser) Omidi, Mohammad Ali Mosibzadeh and Zaman (John) Fadaei\u2014all converts\u2014were also\u00a0sentenced<\/a>\u00a0to 10 years in prison each by Mashallah on June 24.<\/p>\n

After serving his prison term, Nadarkhani will be exiled to Nikshahr, in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, for two years. Omidi will be exiled for two years to Borazjan, Bushehr Province, after the completion of his sentence.<\/p>\n

The four, who were given 20 days to appeal, were arrested by Intelligence Ministry agents while performing Christian rituals at the home of a friend in Rasht, Gilan Province, on May 13, 2016.<\/p>\n

On June 11,\u00a0Victor Bet Tamraz<\/a>, the former leader of Iran\u2019s Assyrian Pentecostal Church, and Christian converts Hadi Asgari and Kavian Fallah Mohammadi were sentenced by Mashallah to 10 years in prison each while convert Amin Afshar Naderi was issued a 15-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

They were also all previously arrested by Intelligence Ministry agents.<\/p>\n

There are no recent official statistics available on the number of Christians in Iran, but 117,704 were counted in a 2011 state\u00a0census<\/a>. In 2010, the World Christian Database (WCD) recorded 270,057 Christians in Iran. Some Christian organizations argue the number is much higher.<\/p>\n

According to Article 13 of the Constitution: \u201cZoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian Iranians are the only recognized religious minorities, who, within the limits of the law, are free to perform their religious rites and ceremonies, and to act according to their own canon in matters of personal affairs and religious education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one in Iran is prosecuted for their beliefs unless they have committed a crime,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Kazem Gharibabadi, the assistant for international affairs at the judiciary\u2019s Islamic human rights division, on March 17, 2017.<\/p>\n

However, the Christian community, particularly its\u00a0convert community<\/a>, faces systematic\u00a0state persecution and discrimination<\/a>\u00a0due to its growth.<\/p>\n

Despite President Hassan Rouhani\u2019s\u00a0pledges during his election campaign<\/a>\u00a0in 2013 that \u201cAll ethnicities, all religions, even religious minorities, must feel justice,\u201d the targeting of Christian converts for state persecution and prosecution has continued unabated under his administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cRouhani was recently reelected in large part because of his\u00a0promises<\/a>\u00a0to improve civil and political rights in Iran,\u201d said Ghaemi. \u201cYet we\u2019re seeing an increasing number of arrests of religious minorities, as well as activists, by the Intelligence Ministry, which is supposed to operate under him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRouhani must use all his authority to reign in the ministry and ensure it stops its trampling of citizens\u2019 rights,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

For interviews, contact:
\nHadi Ghaemi
\n+1-917-669-5996
\nhadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit our website:\u00a0www.iranhumanrights.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 20, 2017\u2014The Iranian authorities must immediately halt the disturbing trend of arrests and imprisonment of Christians, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[327,330,328,329,331],"class_list":["post-1074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-mashallah-ahmadzadeh","tag-mohammad-ali-mosibzadeh","tag-pastor-youcef-nadarkhani","tag-reza-yasser-omidi","tag-zaman-john-fadaei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1075,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074\/revisions\/1075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}