Several Christian Converts to Prison to Serve Their Sentences

A report by Jeffrey Camino in Washington Free Beacon

By court order in Iran, four Christian converts who are members of the Church of Iran will soon begin serving ten-year prison sentences on charges of promoting Zionist Christianity and operating house churches.

According to Human Rights Watch, the court recently confirmed the conviction of these four men and issued prison sentences exceeding expectations. These individuals are expected to report to Rasht Prison in the coming days.

Youssef Nadarkhani, a pastor who has been repeatedly arrested by the Iranian government, is among these individuals. Nadarkhani was sentenced to death approximately eight years ago. He was released from prison two years later but was briefly detained again five years ago.

Nadarkhani and other church members, Mohammad Reza Omidi, Mohammad Ali Mosibzadeh, and Zaman Fadaei, were arrested about two years ago while performing Christian religious ceremonies in a friend’s home.

In the latest report by the “U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom,” Iran has been placed on the list of countries of particular concern due to severe violations of religious freedom. The report estimates the number of Christians in Iran at 300,000. Christians in Iran suffer from various forms of persecution including surveillance, restrictions on church construction, and detention.

Sam Brownback, the U.S. State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, described religious freedom violations in Iran as appalling last week, coinciding with the release of the State Department’s annual report on religious freedom in 2017.

Source: Voice of America