After Accepting Retrial; Date and Court Branch Set for Hearing Charges Against 8 Christian Believers
The court hearing on charges against 8 Christian believers named Behnam Ekhlaghi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Shahrouz Islamdoust, Mehdi Khatibee, Khalil Dehqanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Namanian, and Mohammad Vafadar will be held on March 24 at Branch 34 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. Previously, their retrial request was accepted by the Supreme Court of Iran, and their case was referred back to the same court level for reconsideration.
According to Hrana news agency, the news organ of the Iranian human rights activists collective, the date and branch of the court hearing on charges against Behnam Ekhlaghi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Shahrouz Islamdoust, Mehdi Khatibee, Khalil Dehqanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Namanian, and Mohammad Vafadar have been determined.
The court hearing on charges against these Christian believers will be held on March 24, 1400 at Branch 34 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
An informed source, noting that the ninth defendant in this case, Abdolreza (Mattias) Aligodnezad, is not mentioned in this summons, stated that this has caused concern for his family.
Abdolreza Aligodnezad was arrested on January 15 after being summoned to the Anzali Prosecutor’s Office. It is said that this citizen’s arrest is related to a case for which he had previously been acquitted, but this ruling was recently overturned by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court of Iran, on November 3, 1400, in an unprecedented ruling regarding these 9 Christian believers, declared that promoting Christianity and establishing house churches is neither a crime nor a conspiracy to undermine the country’s security.
Behnam Ekhlaghi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Abdolreza Aligodnezad, Shahrouz Islamdoust, Mehdi Khatibee, Khalil Dehqanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Namanian, and Mohammad Vafadar are all members of a house church called “Church of Iran” in Rasht, who were charged in September 2019 with “action against national security through establishing a house church and promoting evangelical and Zionist Christianity” and were each sentenced to five years in prison.
In the ruling of the review panel in Branch 28 of the Supreme Court of Iran, chaired by Seyyed Ali Izpanah Shehri, the retrial request of these 9 Christian believers was accepted, and it was stated that “merely promoting Christianity through domestic evangelism and promoting evangelical Zionist denominations, which apparently both mean promoting Christianity through conducting family gatherings (house churches), does not demonstrate conspiracy to undermine the country’s security, whether internal or external, and does not fall under Article 498 and 499 of the Islamic Penal Code of 1996 and other criminal laws regarding the formation of associations and branches. Promoting Christianity and establishing house churches have not been criminalized in the laws.”
The Supreme Court of Iran, while accepting the retrial, referred their case back to the same court level for reconsideration.
Hossein Kadivar and Khalil Dehqanpour were arrested on January 29, 2019 during a house church session in Rasht, and Babak Hosseinzadeh, Behnam Ekhlaghi, and Mehdi Khatibee were arrested on March 25 of the same year. Ekhlaghi’s residence was searched after his arrest by officials, and they confiscated some of his personal belongings. According to an informed source, security forces damaged or destroyed symbols related to Christianity during the search of Ekhlaghi’s residence.
On February 11, Abdolreza (Mattias) Aligodnezad was arrested at his home, and subsequently on February 16, three other Christian believers named Mohammad Vafadar, Mohammad (Shahrouz) Islamdoust, and Kamal Namanian were arrested during a house church session. It should be noted that all these citizens were arrested by agents of the Sepah Intelligence Organization.
Babak Hosseinzadeh and Behnam Ekhlaghi, after 12 days in detention at a security institution, were transferred to prison and held for 11 days without observing the principle of separation of crimes. Finally, on March 19, 2019, they were temporarily released pending the completion of legal proceedings after posting a bail of 150 million tomans. Also, Khalil Dehqanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Namanian, and Mohammad Vafadar were released in March of that year after posting bail.
On July 23, 2019, the first court hearing on charges against these citizens was held at Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghisseh. During this session, the bail amount for Abdolreza Aligodnezad, Shahrouz Islamdoust, Behnam Ekhlaghi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, and Mehdi Khatibee was increased to 1.5 billion tomans, and following their inability to provide bail, they were arrested and transferred to Ward 4 of Evin Prison. The other four were released after posting bail.
Finally, each of these citizens was sentenced to 5 years in prison for the charge of “action against national security through establishing a house church and promoting evangelical and Zionist Christianity.” This sentence was ultimately confirmed in June 2020 by Branch 36 of the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeals, presided over by Judge Seyyed Ahmad Zargar, and communicated to them.
It should be noted that although Christians are officially recognized as a religious minority according to law, security agencies pursue the matter of Muslims converting to Christianity with special sensitivity and use coercive measures against activists in this field.
The treatment of Christian believers in Iran occurs 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, including the freedom to change religion with conviction and likewise freedom to express this either individually or in community, publicly or in private.
Source: Hrana
