Four Christians Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison in Iran
Mansour Borji, spokesman for Committee 18, affiliated with the Council of Churches in Communion in London, told Radio Farda that “neo-Christian Nasser Nour Dol-Goltapeh along with three other Azerbaijani citizens have each been sentenced to 10 years in prison.”
The charges against these four individuals are listed as “action against national security and soft overthrow of the system, organizational connection with the Word of Life Church in Sweden and Zionist Christianity.”
According to the Committee 18 website, “Vasif Farhadov Thalit Oghlu, Bahram Nasibov Al-Khan Oghlu, and Aldar Qurbanov are members of the Word of Life Church in Baku who were arrested on June 24, 2016 along with several other Iranian citizens. These individuals were invited by a group of Iranian Christians for a leisure trip to Tehran, but security forces detained them in a house belonging to an Iranian Christian in Phase Two of Andisheh township in Karaj.”
Mansour Borji added: “The charges brought against these Christians lack legal evidence and the issued verdict is a clear violation of freedom of religion and belief. Many Christians are awaiting Revolutionary Court verdicts simply for participating in collective worship, even in the privacy of their own homes.”
The World Christian Solidarity Organization, headquartered in London, has strongly criticized this verdict and called for the rights of these four individuals to be respected.
Since the 1979 revolution, several church leaders in Iran have been killed and hundreds of Christians have been interrogated and imprisoned.
The printing of the Bible in Persian has been banned and some churches have been closed and church services have been prevented.
In early November last year, 19 human rights organizations released a joint statement calling on the international community to end the persecution and harassment of Christian converts in Iran.
Source: Radio Farda
