According to a report by the Hengaw Human Rights Organization and HRANA News Agency, on Sunday March 9, Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, sentenced Abbas Soori to 10 years in prison for “making propaganda against Islamic law” and to 5 years for belonging to anti-government groups. He was also given 15 years of deprivation of social rights and a fine of 330 million tomans.
Narges Naseri, a 37-year-old Christian convert from Tehran, a four months pregnant woman, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic law” and 1 year for propaganda against the regime. She was also given 15 years of social restrictions and a fine of 330 million tomans. According to leaked information, the charge of “propaganda against the regime” against Naseri was based on her online activities and critical social media posts regarding the situation in the country.
Mehran Shamloui was sentenced to 8 years in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic law” and 2 years and 8 months for belonging to anti-government groups. His sentence also includes 15 years of social restrictions and a fine of 250 million
tomans.
The three converts were arrested on November 1, 2024 by intelligence agents for establishing a house church in Tehran and
subsequently transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison, the detention center of the Ministry of Intelligence, where they were subjected to daily interrogations. Naseri was in her first month of pregnancy and was released on December 1 after paying a heavy fee. According to the AsiaNews news agency, house churches in Iran are increasingly widespread “due to the closure of Christian places of worship, the lack of state licenses for the construction of new churches, or because access to official churches is limited to Armenian and Assyrian Christians only. The homes of house churches are changed regularly to avoid the faithful being discovered.” In addition to the prison sentences, Abbas Soori and Narges Naseri were subjected to forced transfer outside Tehran and neighboring provinces and a two-year ban on leaving the country and joining any social or political group.
Members of a traditional Christian church, such as the Armenian or Assyrian churches, often find their faith fairly tolerated in Iran, but minority religious communities, including Christian converts, Baha’is, Sunni Muslims and non-believers in particular, have suffered and continue to suffer discrimination and persecution, physically injured and even killed, with property being violated and damaged. Members of recognized communities such as Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians of traditional churches are allowed to worship within strict limits, but any evangelizing activity is illegal. Christian converts from Islam remain one of the most targeted groups in the country, viewed with deep suspicion and perceived as an attempt by Western countries to undermine Islam and Iran’s Islamic regime. This means that anyone found to be a member of a house church can be charged with national security crimes, which can carry long prison sentences.
Article 13 of the Iranian constitution, placed under the authority of the Shiite clergy, recognizes Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians as protected religious minorities, with the right to freely practice religion and to form religious societies, but in practice religious freedom is not guaranteed.
