Iran ( AOG Pastor and Minister Released from Ahwaz Prison )

 Thursday, 05 December 2013   

Two Christian prisoners were released from Sepidar prison in Ahwaz after 214 days.

 

According to Mohabat News, two Christian prisoners, Farhad Sabokrouh, Pastor of the Assemblies of God Church in Ahwaz, and Naser Zamen-Dezfuli, a church minister were released on December 4, 2013 after 214 days in Sepidar prison.

On December 23, 2011, Iranian security authorities raided a Christmas celebration at the Assemblies of God church of Ahwaz and arrested everyone in attendance. All those arrested were transferred to an unknown location in two buses.

All those arrested were threatened and released after being interrogated and their personal information taken. However, Pastor Sabokrouh, his wife, Shahnaz Jayzan, and two of the church ministers, Naser Zamen-Dezfuli and Davoud Alijani, were held in prison for converting from Islam to Christianity, proselytizing Muslims, and propagating against the Islamic regime through evangelism.

(Khuzestan province, south-west of Tehran)

Later, the Revolutionary Court of Ahwaz sentenced each to one year in prison. Davoud Alijani was arrested and taken to prison to serve his sentence when he went to the court on May 1, 2013, while the three others were summoned to the court and transferred to prison on May 4.

Pastor Sabokrouh and Mr. Zamen-Dezfuli have been released while there are still two weeks remaining from their prison term. Iranian judicial authorities have refused to provide a reason for their slightly early release, thus it is not certain whether this pardon will include the pastor's wife, and Davoud Alijani or not.

It should be mentioned that according to a directive from Iran's Revolutionary Court and as part of the court's policy to further pressure and persecute religious and political prisoners, Christian convicts are not to be granted leave permits while serving their sentences.

The Assemblies of God Church of Ahwaz, which is technically a house turned into a church, is registered and thus under the supervision of Iranian authorities. Despite this fact, the church has been targeted and subject to unreasonable pressure.
Arbitrary arrests and restrictions on Christian converts are not a new phenomenon. In fact all religious minorities in Iran are subject to various forms of discrimination in one way or another.
After the Islamic revolution of 1979, the situation of religious minorities in Iran has always been a major Human Rights concern. /Farsi