“Iman Salimani”: Lawyers Defending New Christian Believers Face Systematic Pressures

Iman Salimani, a lawyer, spoke about systematic pressure against lawyers defending Christians.

Government pressure from the Islamic Republic in recent years against religious minorities in Iran, particularly Christians, has become a very serious issue. Although judicial authorities do not consider the formation of home churches a crime, the detention of Christians continues due to having or participating in home churches and baseless charges against them persist.

Iman Salimani, a practicing lawyer, conducted an interview with Reverend “Rasoul Haidari” on the Christian network “Eternal Hope” to reflect the injustices and widespread violations of civil rights in Iran to the whole world. In recent years, Iman Salimani has represented many Christian citizens who, due to their Christian beliefs and peaceful religious activities, were detained and imprisoned on baseless charges such as “propaganda against the system” and “acts against national security” without any valid documents or evidence, and Mr. Salimani defended them against the charges.

In his remarks, he referred to the detention of “Joseph Shahbazian” and the re-detention of “Naser Noor Dolgolpe” who were arrested without presenting documents or new reasons, and Naser Noor was detained solely on the basis of previous charges, while his previous case had been declared closed and reopening it contradicts legal principles.

Salimani stated emphatically about the case of these two Christian citizens: “According to existing laws, temporary detention is only permissible if there is fear of the accused’s escape or destruction of evidence, whereas these conditions are completely unacceptable in the case of these two Christian citizens, and the continuation of this behavior indicates a deep contradiction and disagreement between the country’s security agencies and higher judicial authorities.”

In this interview, he emphasized the Supreme Court’s decision being ignored regarding the legality of Christian group worship and said: “On November 12, 1400, the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented ruling regarding 9 new Christian believers imprisoned in Evin Prison, declared that preaching Christianity and forming home churches is neither a crime nor a conspiracy to undermine the country’s security. According to this ruling issued by the Supreme Court, group worship is not only not considered a crime, but is part of citizens’ freedom of belief and religion. Nevertheless, some interrogators and judges have ignored this ruling and continue to use charges such as forming home churches and propaganda against the system to suppress Christians.”

Iman Salimani pointed to one of the important challenges related to the detention of religious minorities and systematic pressures on their lawyers due to accepting cases and defending believers charged with ideological crimes and added: “Many lawyers refrain from accepting such cases due to fear of security interrogations.”

He, who provided free legal services to Christian citizens, said from his personal experience: “Due to providing free legal services to new Christian believers, I faced financial charges and severe pressures, which resulted in many believers charged with ideological and religious crimes being deprived of their natural right to use lawyers’ services and effectively denied access to justice.”

In his interview with this Christian network, Iman Salimani, while referring to statistics released by Iranian human rights activists, added: “These statistics clearly show the severity of the detention situation in Iran. In just the past year, 2,491 ideological and political activists were detained, statistics that clearly emphasize the necessity of structural reforms in the country’s judicial and security systems. Now one can point to 63-year-old Christian Naser Noor Dolgolpe, who after 35 days of hunger strike suffered serious physical and psychological damage but is still deprived of access to proper medical services.”

In part of his remarks with Reverend Rasoul Haidari, he raised questions that have remained unanswered for a long time. He stated: “How is it possible that a person, while recognized as a Christian citizen in Iran, is charged with propaganda against the system because of organizing religious gatherings? If the law guarantees freedom to perform religious rites, why do some judicial and security agencies trample on explicit legal principles? What specific legal basis exists for charges such as forming home churches in the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran?”

The threat to religious minorities in Iran and the restrictions imposed against them indicate the existence of deep structural problems in the country’s judicial and security system, and laws and procedures related to human rights and religious minorities must be seriously reviewed.