After accepting the retrial, the court determines the time and branch to hear the charges against 8 Christian believers.
The court hearing to hear the charges against eight Christian believers, Behnam Akhlaqi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Shahroz Eslam Doost, Mehdi Khatibi, Khalil Dehghanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Noemanian, and Mohammad Vafadar, will be held on March 25 at Branch 34 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. The Supreme Court had previously accepted the request for a retrial of these individuals and sent their cases to the same branch for retrial.
According to HRANA News Agency, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, the time and branch of the court hearing to hear the charges against Behnam Akhlaqi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Shahroz Eslamdoost, Mehdi Khatibi, Khalil Dehghanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Noemanian, and Mohammad Vafadar have been set.
The court hearing to hear the charges against these Christian believers will be held on March 23, 2021, at Branch 34 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
An informed source pointed out that the name of Abdolreza (Matias) Ali Haqnejad, the ninth defendant in the case, was not mentioned in the summons, and said that this issue has caused concern for his family.
Abdolreza Ali Haqnejad was arrested on January 15, 2020, after being summoned to the Anzali Prosecutor's Office. It is said that the arrest of this citizen is related to a case in which he was previously acquitted of the charges, and this ruling was recently overturned by the Supreme Court.
On November 12, 1402, the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented ruling regarding these nine Christian believers, declared that preaching Christianity and forming a house church was neither a crime nor a conspiracy to disrupt the country's security.
Behnam Akhlaqi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Abdolreza Ali Haqnejad, Shahroz Eslamdoost, Mehdi Khatibi, Khalil Dehghanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Nomaniyan, and Mohammad Vafadar are all members of a house church called the "Church of Iran" in the city of Rasht. In October 2019, they were accused of "acting against the security of the country by forming a house church and propagating evangelical and Zionist Christianity" and were each sentenced to five years in prison.
In the ruling of the hearing panel in Branch 28 of the Supreme Court, headed by Seyyed Ali Izpanah Shahri, the request for a retrial of these 9 Christian believers was deemed valid and it was clarified that the mere domestic propagation of Christianity and the promotion of the Zionist sect, which apparently both mean the propagation and promotion of Christianity through holding family (home) meetings, does not constitute a community or collusion to disrupt the security of the country, whether internal or external, and through the formation of a group, group, or branch of a group, it is not subject to Articles 498 and 499 of the Islamic Penal Code of 1375 and other criminal laws, and the propagation of Christianity and the formation of a house church are not criminalized in the laws.
The Supreme Court, while accepting the retrial, referred their case to the same branch for retrial.
Hossein Kadivar and Khalil Dehghanpour were arrested on February 29, 2018, at a house church meeting in Rasht, and Babak Hosseinzadeh, Behnam Akhlaqi, and Mehdi Khatibi were arrested on February 29, 2018. After his arrest, Mr. Akhlaqi’s home was searched by officers, who confiscated some of his personal belongings and took them away. According to an informed source, security forces broke or damaged symbols related to Christianity during the search of Mr. Akhlaqi’s home.
On February 11, Abdolreza (Matias) Ali Haqnejad was arrested in his home, and on Friday, February 16, three other Christian believers, Mohammad Vafadar, Mohammad (Shahruz) Islam Doost, and Kamal Nomaniyan, were arrested at a house church meeting. It should be noted that all of these citizens were arrested by agents of the IRGC Intelligence Organization.
After 12 days in detention, Babak Hosseinzadeh and Behnam Akhlaqi were transferred to prison and held in prison for 11 days without observing the principle of separation of crimes. Finally, on March 17, 2018, they were temporarily released on bail of 150 million Tomans until the end of the trial. Khalil Dehghanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Nomaniyan, and Mohammad Vafadar were also released on bail in March of the same year.
On August 2, 2019, the first court session to hear the charges against these citizens was held in Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh. During this session, the bail amount of Abdolreza Ali Haqnejad, Shahroz Eslamdoost, Behnam Akhlaqi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, and Mehdi Khatibi was increased to one billion and five hundred million tomans, and they were arrested and transferred to Ward 4 of Evin Prison due to their financial inability to pay bail. Four others were also released on bail.
Ultimately, each of these citizens was sentenced to 5 years in prison for “acting against the security of the country by forming a house church and propagating evangelical and Zionist Christianity.” This sentence was finally confirmed in June 2020 by Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal, headed by Judge Seyyed Ahmad Zargar Aina.
It is worth noting that despite the fact that Christians are recognized as a religious minority by law, the security services follow the issue of Muslims converting to Christianity with particular sensitivity and deal with activists in this field with force.
The treatment of Christian believers in Iran is taking place despite the fact that, 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 religion and to change their religion with conviction, as well as the freedom to manifest it, individually or in community with others and in public or in private.
Source: HRANA
