Sakina Bahjati, Christian believer, sent to Lakan Prison in Rasht to serve her sentence
Sakina Bahjati, a Christian believer, was sent to Lakan Prison in Rasht on Saturday, April 17, 2022, to serve her sentence. Ms. Bahjati was sentenced to two years of discretionary imprisonment in August 2020.
According to Hrana news agency, the news organ of the human rights activists’ collective in Iran, on Saturday, April 17, 2022, Sakina Bahjati, a Christian convert, was sent to Lakan Prison in Rasht to serve her sentence.
Iman Soleimani, the lawyer defending this citizen, told Hrana: “My client was summoned before the holiday by Branch One of the Enforcement of Sentences Department of Evin Prosecutor’s Office to serve her sentence. Upon submission of a defense brief, a one-month extension was requested from the Enforcement Department, considering her residence in Rasht and the fact that she has a young child, and with the approval of the Enforcement Department, she was finally summoned again on April 15, 2022 to serve her sentence. With my follow-ups, the request for her transfer from Evin Prison to Rasht Prison was approved.”
Sakina Bahjati previously, along with three other Christian believers, was interrogated in December 2019 following security officials’ presence at her home on charges of “propaganda against the system and society and conspiracy against national security.” After confiscating her personal belongings and documents, she was told that she would soon be summoned to court.
Ms. Bahjati was summoned to Branch 10 of the Revolutionary Court in Rasht in May 2020 through a phone call, and after being informed of the charges, a bail of 500 million tomans was set for her. On May 25, 2020, due to financial inability to pay the bail, she was transferred to Lakan Prison in Rasht, and on May 31, with the bail reduced to 200 million tomans, she was released temporarily until the end of the legal proceedings.
Sakina Bahjati was ultimately sentenced in August 2020 by the court to 2 years of discretionary imprisonment on charges of “action against national security through establishing a house church and propaganda against the system through evangelical Christian missionary activity.”
She was summoned on February 1, 2022 through a notification to Branch 1 of the Criminal Enforcement Unit of Evin Prosecutor’s Office to serve her prison sentence.
It should be noted that although Christians are officially recognized as a religious minority under law, security agencies follow the issue of Muslims converting to Christianity with particular sensitivity and deal forcefully with activists in this field.
Treatment of Christian believers in Iran is taking place while according to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as freedom to manifest that religion or belief, individually or in community with others and in public or in private.
Source: Hrana
