Continued Suppression of Religious Freedoms in Iran; Four Christian Converts Summoned to Evin Prison to Serve Sentences
Hossein Kadivar, Khalil Dehghanpour, Kamal Namanyan, and Mohammad Vafadar, four Christian converts who were previously each sentenced to five years in prison by the Revolutionary Court, have been summoned to Evin Prison to serve their sentences.
Organization “Article 18” reported on Monday, June 2, that each of these four Christian converts, who were sentenced to five years imprisonment in late October of last year by Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on charges of “actions against national security,” were summoned on Thursday, May 29, to Evin Prison upon receiving a notice to serve their sentence.
According to the report, the issuance and enforcement of this sentence for these Christian converts is occurring while the appellate court hearing was held without the presence of these citizens and their lawyers, and their appeal along with that of five other Christian converts was rejected by the court on February 25.
One of the lawyers representing these Christian converts told Article 18 that the Islamic Republic intends to expedite the handling of legal cases, as files related to recent protests have accumulated and the spread of coronavirus has slowed all activities.
Organization Article 18, with the aim of supporting the rights stipulated in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, pays special attention to cases of violations of rights of religious minorities in Iran, and the organization’s primary effort is to fill the perceived gap in awareness regarding the right to “freedom of thought, conscience, and religion” for Iranian citizens’ rights.
Previously, Voice of America reported that Hossein Kadivar, Khalil Dehghanpour, Kamal Namanyan, Mohammad Vafadar, Abdolreza (Matthias) Alighechnezad, Shahrouz Islamdoust, Behnam Ekhlaghi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, and Mehdi Khatibi, Christian converts from Rasht and members of the church known as “Church of Iran” in the city, have been sentenced collectively to 45 years in prison by the Revolutionary Court.
These Christian converts’ sentences have entered the execution phase while officials of the Islamic Republic, including Javad Zarif, Foreign Minister, have repeatedly claimed that in Iran no one is persecuted or convicted for expressing an opinion.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently expressed concern again about the state of religious and faith freedoms in Iran in its annual report, and in the section of the report pertaining to Iran, which was released on Tuesday, April 30, stated that the Islamic Republic has increasingly targeted Muslim minorities, particularly Sunnis and Dervishes, as well as followers of other religions and faiths, including Bahais and Christians.
Source: Voice of America
