Mohsen Namvar was released “temporarily” last week to return to his home in Tehran where he received medical aid after being beaten in prison, Christians said. Namvar has apparently also a fever and high blood pressure.
“His body is still in shock,” Christian news agency Compass Direct News quoted an unidentified Iranian Christian as saying. “His hands and feet are shaking all the time,” the Christian said, apparently speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. “Maybe they were afraid he would die in prison,” the source added.
Namvar was detained May 31 at his home in Tehran, apparently because he converted convert from Islam to Christianity, which can carry the death sentence under Iran’s strict Islamic legislation.
REFUSING ANSWERS
Namvar has reportedly refused to answer questions from his wife about his weeks under arrest, saying, “Don’t ask me anything.” He has also avoided removing his clothes in her presence to prevent her from seeing the extent of his injuries, Christians said. “They put a great deal of pressure on his body and his mind,” the source said. “No one knows exactly what they did to him during those four weeks.”
Noting that government authorities know a great deal about Namvar’s Christian activities and want to punish him, the source was quoted as saying that “We praise the Lord that they have not killed him.”
Namvar was unable to walk for several months after he was previously detained and allegedly severely tortured with electrical shocks in the spring of 2007. The mistreatment came after being accused of baptizing Muslims who had become Christians.
Compass Direct News quoted sources as saying that police authorities demanded that Namvar’s family put up just over US$43,000 in bail to secure his temporarily release. Relatives came up with half of the bail and borrowed the rest. When they requested a formal receipt for the cash handed over on June 26, police allegedly refused to supply one amid allegations they and judges receive the money.
POLICE RAID
Police authorities who raided Namvar’s home while arresting him had allegedly already confiscated a large sum of cash along with his computer, printer, CDs and books. His arrest comes amid a wider crackdown on Christian converts in Iran and reports that police increasingly demand cash payments from prisoners’ families.
Ten days after Namvar’s arrest, police again ransacked and searched his home, threatening his wife Fereshteh and making intimidating comments to her, Compass Direct News claimed. In addition, the couple’s 12-year-old son was approached at school by a stranger who offered to take him home, “because your father is not here,” the news agency said.
He did not accompany the stranger, but his mother has now to escort him to and from school every day, Christians said, adding that his wife also received threatening telephone calls. Because she and her husband had rejected Islam, the anonymous callers said, “We must punish you, and we must kill you,” Compass Direct News said, without identifying its sources.
At least 14 other Iranian Christians have been reported arrested in separate incidents in Shiraz and Tehran since early May. Most have been released after interrogations, some with pending charges of activities against either Islam or the state. However Mahmood Matin and a second man identified only by his first name, Arash, are among those who have remained in custody since their arrest in Shiraz on May 13.
