Three Christian Citizens Summoned for Imprisonment Execution/Document
Harana News Agency – Joseph Shahbazian, Samiye (Sonya) Sadegh, and Mina Khajavi Qomi, Christian citizens, have been summoned to Branch One of the Evin Prosecutor’s Office Enforcement of Sentences division through a notice for the execution of a prison sentence.
According to Harana News Agency, the news organ of the Human Rights Activists in Iran collective, Joseph Shahbazian, Samiye (Sonya) Sadegh, and Mina Khajavi Qomi, Christian citizens, were summoned to the Evin Prosecutor’s Office through a notice for the execution of their prison sentences.
Based on a notice issued on Monday, July 28, by Branch One of the Enforcement of Sentences of the Evin Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office and delivered to Iman Soleimani, the defense lawyer of these citizens, these citizens have been requested to appear within one day from the date of registration of this notice in the Thana system at the mentioned branch.
Previously, on August 15, the sentence of Joseph Shahbazian to 10 years of punitive imprisonment, deprivation of social rights, ban on leaving the country, and ban on membership in groups and associations and exile, Mina Khajavi to 6 years of punitive imprisonment, and Samiye Sadegh to 4 years of punitive imprisonment—which was converted to a fine of 40 million tomans—was confirmed exactly by Branch 36 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court of Appeals.
Iman Soleimani said to Harana regarding this matter: “The confirmation of the sentence took place without regard to established legal and jurisprudential principles, the principle of proportionality, the principle of legality of crime and punishment, and other principles of procedural law and the right to defense, and without holding a hearing session and without considering the detailed and substantiated defense arguments.”
These citizens have been accused of matters including “forming an illegal group and association with the aim of undermining national security, acting against national security through the propagation of evangelical Christianity and establishing house churches.”
The court hearing regarding the charges against these Christian citizens was held on May 29 of this year at Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, and through a notice dated June 6, this branch, under the presidency of Iman Afshari, sentenced them to a total of 16 years of imprisonment, fines, deprivation of social rights, and prohibition from leaving the country.
Joseph Shahbazian, a 57-year-old Armenian descent citizen, was arrested in June 2020 along with a number of other Christian worshippers during a religious ceremony in the Yaft Abad area of Tehran. In August of the same year, Mr. Shahbazian was temporarily released on bail of two billion tomans. Samiye Sadegh and Mina Khajavi Qomi were also arrested and later temporarily released on bail.
Source: Harana
