words "please pray for me," as security forces escorted him from a Tehran prison to a feared Sharia (Islamic) court, BosNewsLife monitored Wednesday May 18.
Pourmand left Tehran’s Evin Prison by armored car Monday, May 16, to his home city of Bandar-i Bushehr to stand trial for his life before a Sharia (Islamic ) court, Compass Direct news agency reported.
"Although some of Pourmand’s relatives were allowed to see him briefly before his departure from Tehran, the Christian prisoner was not permitted to speak with them. Gazing at them silently, he mouthed the words: ‘Please pray for me’", Compass Direct said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife.
It was not clear how it had obtained the information, but Compass Direct has been in close
contacts with sources close to the case.
WEEKEND TRIAL?
Pourmand’s trial before a Sharia court was not expected to begin before next Saturday, May 21, "at the earliest," the news agency quoted his defense lawyer as saying. Sources were unable to confirm which of several prisons Pourmand would be placed in when he arrived in Bandar-i Bushehr Tuesday, May 17.
Pourmand, 47, was arrested last September by the Iranian security police while attending a church conference near Tehran, the Iranian capital. Although a colonel in the Iranian army, he was also serving as lay pastor of an Assemblies of God congregation in Bandar-i Bushehr, the southern port city where he was living with his family.
During five months of interrogation in strict solitary confinement, Pourmand lost nearly 40 pounds (nearly 20 kilo’s) , church sources said.
"DECEIVING ARMED FORCES"
When produced before a military court, he was accused of “deceiving the Iranian armed forces” about his conversion to Christianity. Although observers said he produced "written evidence" that his army superiors "were fully aware" of his Christian faith, he was found guilty of the charges, dishonorably discharged from the army and sentenced to three years in prison.
Pourmand’s family is also suffering as his officer salary was suspended at the time of his arrest, with his entire pension cancelled after the military court conviction. Although court orders were issued immediately to evict his family from their army housing, local authorities in Bandar-i Bushehr have reportedly postponed the eviction of his wife and two teenage sons, Immanuel and David, until the end of the current school term.
Since his court martial conviction in mid February, Pourmand has been jailed with well-known political dissidents in a group cell at Evin Prison, awaiting a separate trial on the apostasy and proselytism charges which, if convicted, carry the death penalty.
SECRETIVE PROCEEDINGS
After news leaked out in April that his initial apostasy hearings had begun before an Islamic court in Tehran, the secretive proceedings were quickly shelved, Compass Direct said. In addition US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which has many listeners in the Middle East, carried a BosNewsLife news item on Pourmand’s case.
Iranian officials announced in late April that due to the international publicity Pourmand would at some point be transferred back to his home town Bandar-i Bushehr for his Sharia trial proceedings. Although several Iranian converts to Christianity have been murdered by unknown assassins in recent years, the last government-ordered executions of convert Christians were in 1988 and 1990, human rights watchers say.
During last month’s lunch meeting in The Hague between Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi and his Dutch counterpart Bernard Bot, Iranian authorities were reportedly reminded “specifically and at length” that the Dutch Parliament was following Pourmand’s case closely. The European Union has also expressed concern about the case, describing it as an “infringement of the freedom of religion or belief.”
PRISONS "TERRIBLE"
Earlier United States officials and human rights watchers suggested that prison where Pourmand was expected to arrive Tuesday, May 17. was "terrible." "The prisons in Bandar-i Bushehr [where Pourmand is expected to arrive next] are [also] terrible," one unidentified Iranian source reportedly said in a published statement. “By law, he should be allowed visitors once or twice a week. But in Iran, nobody pays any attention to the law." Torture remains an additional concern.
The US State Department said this year that common methods include "prolonged solitary confinement with sensory deprivation, beatings, long confinement in contorted positions, kicking detainees with military boots, hanging detainees by the arms and legs, threats of execution if individuals refused to confess, burning with cigarettes, sleep deprivation, and severe and repeated beatings with cables or other instruments on the back and on the soles of the feet."
It added that in 2004 "prisoners also reported beatings about the ears, inducing partial or complete deafness, and punching in the eyes, leading to partial or complete blindness."
Pourmand’s family is also suffering as his officer salary was suspended at the time of his arrest, with his entire pension cancelled after his military court conviction. Although court orders were issued immediately to evict his family from their army housing, local authorities in Bandar-i Bushehr have postponed the eviction of his wife Arlet and their two teenage sons, Immanuel and David. until the end of the current school term. Christian comprise less than 2 percent of Iran’s mainly Islamic, nearly 70-million, strong population, according to official estimates. (With BosNewsLife Research, Compass Direct, Stefan J. Bos and reports from Iran the United States and the Netherlands)
