Christian Pastor spends fourth Christmas in Iran prison

Iranian pastor Farshid Fathi is to spend his fourth Christmas behind bars this year after being convicted of 'acting against national security' for leading a network of underground evangelical house churches.

The 35-year-old Christian cleric is being held in the Rajai Shahr prison, near Tehran, where he shares a cell with hardened criminals, London-based public-affairs strategist Miles Windsor wrote.

Mr Windsor, who works on behalf of Christians persecuted in the Middle East, said: "This will be Pastor Farshid Fathi’s fourth Christmas in an Iranian prison, yet his fortitude, faith and indomitable spirit continues to impress and encourage.

"Pastor Fathi converted to Christianity at the age of 17. As the pastor would soon learn, Iran is a very dangerous place to worship Christ.

"The Tehran regime likes to tout its treatment of Iran’s historic Christian communities, the Armenians and Assyrians, as a testament to its tolerance.

"The mullahs reserve the most vicious treatment for Iranian Muslims, like Pastor Fathi, who have dared to convert to Christianity. Persian-language Bibles are banned in the country, and apostasy is punishable by death under Shariah law, which lies at the heart of the Iranian penal code.

"Yet to mask its naked persecution of Christian converts, the Tehran regime usually jails them on national-security charges or on the pretext that they spy for foreign powers.

"That’s what happened to Pastor Fathi. In December 2010, the father of two was arrested and arbitrarily detained in Tehran’s nightmarish Evin Prison. His 'crime' was serving as the leader of a network of underground evangelical house churches.

"After a year-long interval, during which he spent months in solitary confinement and was subjected to psychological abuse, he was convicted by a revolutionary court of 'acting against national security' and sentenced to six years."

Then in April, Pastor Fathi was one of several prisoners beaten during an attack by security forces on Ward 350 of Evin, Mr Windsor said.

He added: "His right to family visits, guaranteed under Iran’s own laws, is routinely violated. He isn’t permitted to sing Christians hymns, and prison authorities have confiscated his Bible.

"For the past few years, I have been advocating on behalf of Pastor Fathi and other Iranian Christians in Westminster and before the regime’s representatives. Though his case angers me and calls me to action, I am more often impressed and encouraged by the pastor’s fortitude, faith and indomitable spirit as they are reflected in his letters to supporters from prison.

"His latest contains a powerful Christmas message: 'Although the beauty of Christmas or the signs of Christmas cannot be found in this prison, with the ears of faith I can hear the everlasting and beautiful truth that: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel'."

"It is signed “your captive brother who is free in Christ."

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Navajo Indian killed by state police - Shady report

AZTEC — Detectives from the San Juan County Sheriff's Office found no evidence of a drive-by shooting at Myles Roughsurface's house prior to the 27-year-old man's death on Friday, according to a police report released by the sheriff's office on Monday.

Roughsurface's stepfather, Charles Lee, told The Daily Times on Saturday that he had placed guns in Roughsurface's room so that his stepson could protect himself after two young white men earlier this year drove by the family's house in a white truck and shot at them, wounding the family's dog.

Police found one of those firearms in Roughsurface's pocket after he was fatally shot by a New Mexico State Police officer Friday evening, an officer told Roughsurface's family on Saturday.

According to the police report, two family members called 911 shortly before 10 p.m. Oct. 19 and reported that shots were fired near their residence, located at No. 9 County Road 3267.

However, detectives could not locate any shell casings near the area where the shots were heard, and a follow-up investigation did not turn up substantive evidence that the house or the family dog had been struck by bullets.

Detectives also did not find Roughsurface's statements regarding the shooting to be credible. Roughsurface told police he saw two men in a white truck fire guns at his house as he was driving home from the Circle K in Flora Vista.

However, surveillance footage showed Roughsurface was at Circle K at the time the shooting was reported, the report states.

According to the report, the surveillance footage showed a man detectives believe to be Roughsurface making obscene gestures at passing motorists outside the store at the time dispatchers received reports that shots were fired.

Several family members, including Roughsurface, accused two men of being the shooters, according to the report, but the names of the individuals were redacted from the report.

Courtesy of Darlene Tso Myles Roughsurface, 27, who was shot and killed by New Mexico State Police on Friday, is pictured in this undated courtesy photo.

The men were located by deputies driving in the area shortly after the alleged shooting, and their vehicle was stopped, the report states. Both men denied owning guns, and officers saw no evidence in their vehicle that they had weapons, ammunition or spent shell casings, the report states. One of the men later told a detective he had been in an altercation with Roughsurface shortly before he was accused in the shooting.

He said he and his friend were at the intersection near Roughsurface's house looking for a lost pair of glasses when Roughsurface approached them, the report states.

The man told detectives Roughsurface cursed at them and told them to get off his property. The man told detectives they were nowhere near Roughsurface's property, but Roughsurface regularly acted like he "runs the neighborhood," the report states.

Neither Lee nor Roughsurface's mother, Darlene Tso, could be reached for comment Monday.

Detectives said in the report they had previously had contact with Roughsurface, and he was out on bond on Oct. 19.

According to court records, Roughsurface was charged on Sept. 12 in Farmington Magistrate Court with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Farmington police officers were dispatched at 11 p.m. Sept. 10 to the area of East 30th Street and Sullivan Avenue after receiving reports a man had exited his vehicle and threatened another motorist with a knife, according to the criminal complaint.

The motorist told police a man driving a tan Ford Explorer was tailgaiting him on East 30th Street, and he tapped his brakes to create distance between the vehicles.

The Ford Explorer sped past the motorist's car, and he saw two men in the vehicle drinking from a bottle of alcohol, the report states.

The man told police he was writing down the vehicle's license plate number when the two men exited the Ford Explorer and charged his vehicle. He said the passenger in the vehicle was wielding a knife, the complaint states.

A Ford Explorer with a license plate number similar to one the man provided was located and stopped by police near the intersection of Rowe Avenue and East Main Street.

Roughsurface, the vehicle's passenger, was found to be in possession of a folding knife and several 50 milliliter bottles of liquor.

Roughsurface told detectives he and the driver were attempting to locate someone and denied threatening the man.

Roughsurface was released on a $5,000 surety bond and ordered not to possess any firearms or consume alcohol, according to court records.

The allegations made against Roughsurface contrast the descriptions provided by his friends and family, who said the man was intelligent and generous. His friend, Jacquelin Medina, said Saturday that Roughsurface was always willing to help people and gave her money to buy milk for her children.

Roughsurface's mother said her son could hold a conversation with anyone, but was also handy and capable of building a house from the foundation up.

Friends, family and neighbors held a candelight vigil for Roughsurface on Saturday evening.

New Mexico State Police officials have not identified Roughsurface as the individual shot Friday evening, but The Daily Times was present Saturday afternoon when officers informed Tso and Lee about their son's death.

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Mexican Governor Seeks Federal Help Against Vigilantes

MORELIA, Mexico – The governor of the western Mexican state of Michoacan appealed to President Enrique Peña Nieto for federal help to impose order on three towns dominated by vigilantes.

Michoacan’s people must move from the culture of guns to the culture of peace to avert further bloodshed, Gov. Salvador Jara said as he reflected on a Dec. 16 clash between rival vigilante groups that left 11 people dead.

He announced that he had requested support from the army, the Federal Police and other federal bodies to detain all armed civilians in three towns, including La Ruana, the scene of last week’s battle.

“It is unacceptable for there to be armed civilians in Michoacan,” the governor said. “We will not tolerate it and we will act to begin the disarmament of any person or group.”

The Dec. 16 battle began when more than 80 vigilantes led by Luis Antonio Torres, known as “el Americano,” attacked a barricade manned by followers of Hipolito Mora, founder of the militia movement that arose in Michoacan nearly two years ago to protect communities from the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel.

One of Mora’s sons was among those killed in the confrontation.

Peña Nieto sent troops and Federal Police into Michoacan in January to suppress the conflict between the Templarios and the militias.

On March 7, two reputed Templarios gunmen who had infiltrated Torres’ organization were found slain.

Torres pointed the finger at Mora, who was arrested but ultimately released due to lack of evidence.

Many members of Michoacan militias, including the followers of both Mora and Torres, have signed up for a government-sanctioned rural security force.

Earlier this month, however, authorities notified 300 members of Torres’ faction that they had been disqualified from serving in the new organization.

The Torres group responded by blocking roads.

Residents of the area around La Ruana say the 300 Torres associates rejected by the rural security force have links to the Viagras, a group of hired guns who worked for the Templarios.

At Least 1,171 Killed in Syria Since Start of Coalition Strikes

CAIRO – At least 1,171 people have been killed in Syria in airstrikes of the U.S.-led international coalition that began targeting the Islamic State jihadist group on Sept. 23, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Tuesday.

SOHR explained that 1,046 IS fighters, most of them foreigners, were killed in the international coalition’s air raids on areas such as Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Deir al-Zour, al-Hasakah and al-Raqqa.

At least 52 civilians were among the dead, including eight children and five women, in attacks in the provinces of al-Hasakah, Deir al-Zour, al-Raqqa, Aleppo and Idleb.

Meanwhile, at least one member of another Islamist insurgent brigade who was held captive by the IS, was killed in an airstrike against the radical organization’s headquarters in the town of Madan, in the countryside near the city of Al-Raqqa.

SOHR said the airstrikes have also affected refineries and oil fields, mills and a factory.

Another 72 militants from the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front were also killed in Aleppo and Idleb.

The London-based NGO said it believes the real death toll of IS combatants might well be higher, since the terrorist group has imposed absolute secrecy on the casualties it sustains, and due to the difficulty in accessing areas subjected to attacks and bombings.

IS proclaimed in late June a caliphate in territories under its control in Iraq and Syria.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict since 2011, according to the United Nations.