Alireza and Amir Noormohammadi accused of propagating against Islam
Alireza and Amir Noormohammadi, members of the Karaj house church, were accused of preaching against Islam.
On December 10, 1402 (Azerbaijani calendar), Ministry of Intelligence agents raided a shop and two houses owned by Christians in Karaj and arrested four Christian citizens named Alireza and Amir Noormohammadi, Milad Goodarzi, and a person named Danial.
Former prisoners of conscience Milad Goodarzi and Danial were released after questioning, but the Noormohammadi brothers were detained for more than a month. They were released from prison 20 days ago, on January 10, after posting a bail of 150 million Tomans, but now, according to reports published on social media, they have been accused of “educational activities and deviant propaganda contrary to the holy law of Islam by making false and false claims in religious and religious areas.” The charges against the two brothers are based on changes that have been added to Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code.
According to Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code, "committing any other deviant activity, teaching, or propaganda that is contrary to or disruptive of the holy law of Islam in real or virtual space, or creating psychological and physical dominance over a person in the form of a sect or any other organized criminal group, is considered a crime."
In October of this year, the UN Human Rights Committee called on the government of the Islamic Republic to amend or eliminate these articles of the penal code, which are used to suppress most minorities, especially Christian citizens, regarding changes to Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code.
The United Nations, in its recent resolution on human rights violations by the Iranian government, called on the authorities of the Islamic Republic to eliminate, in law and practice, all forms of discrimination based on thought, conscience, religion, or belief, including the restrictions of Articles 499 and 500 of the Islamic Penal Code.
Also, according to Article 18, several families who attended a house church in Karaj were recently summoned and interrogated for their Christian beliefs and activities. The harassment of Christian citizens, which had increased more than before on the eve of Christmas, has intensified in recent weeks after the start of the New Year.
Mina Khajoui is also a Christian citizen who was arrested for her beliefs and was released from prison in recent weeks for treatment. However, despite her illness and the fact that her treatment period had not yet ended, she was forced to return to Evin Prison to serve her sentence.
