Christian citizens Mansour and Mahmoud Mardani sentenced to eight years in prison

Mansour and Mahmoud Mardani, Christian citizens, were sentenced to 8 years in prison by the Lanjan Revolutionary Court.

Mansour, 56, and Mahmoud, 49, two Christian brothers, were arrested in 1400 while celebrating Christmas in a house church in Foladshahr, Isfahan. Ten other Christian citizens attended the ceremony, but only these two brothers were arrested. Later reports indicated that other Christian citizens were being investigated and interrogated.

Most of these individuals were issued with a restraining order on charges of "acting against national security by participating in a house church," but the legal process for the Mardani brothers began in January 1401. In November 1403, Branch 2 of the Investigation Department of the General and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office of Lenjan City summoned Mansour and Mahmoud, issued a bail of one billion tomans for each of them, and prosecuted them on charges of "deviant educational and propaganda activities contrary to Islamic law" and issued them with a summons to appear in court, while only a restraining order was issued for two other citizens related to their case.

In January 1403, the aforementioned court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Ali Abbasi, sentenced Mansour and Mahmoud Mardani to a ban on residence in Isfahan province and the city of Foladshahr, and two years of compulsory residence in Ardal county, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. These sentences were issued against them in accordance with Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code.

According to published reports, these two Christian brothers have now been sentenced by the Lenjan County Revolutionary Court to 4 years of imprisonment, a fine of 150 million Tomans, and deprivation of social rights for 5 years, in addition to the heavy sentences issued against them. 

These two brothers are not the first to be arrested during Christmas, and they will not be the last. For several years, the Islamic Republic government has been raiding homes and churches in various cities during Christmas, arresting and harassing Christians, including children, and sentencing them to heavy sentences, exile, and imprisonment.