By BosNewsLife Middle East Service
TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)– An Iranian court has sentenced a young evangelical Christian to one year imprisonment and two years exile to a remote border town for his involvement in evangelism and house churches, Iranian Christians told BosNewsLife Tuesday, August 20.
The Revolutionary Court in the city of Robat-Karim, some 27 kilometers (17 miles) southwest of Tehran, reportedly told Ebrahim Firouzi that his “Books (Bibles), and other means of evangelism taken from him, including his personal computer, which were used to commit this crime will be seized in favor of the government and destroyed.”
Judge Ali Babaei allegedly said the sentence was justified as Firouzi had been “propagating against the Islamic regime [by] starting and directing an evangelism group, contact with opponents of the Islamic Revolution and anti-Islamic regime networks in foreign countries”.
He added that Firouzi started a Christian website, distributed evangelical books and Bibles which were smuggled into the country, “and so maintained his position as an anti-Islamic Revolution agent inside the country.”
Babaei also noted that the Christian “attended illegal house-churches in order to promote evangelical Christianity,” according to court documents released by Mohabat News, a news agency of Iranian Christians and activists.
HOUSE CHURCH “CRIMINAL”
The judge said said holding house church services was “a criminal act which spreads profligacy among youth and creates doubts in their minds about Islamic principles.”
Therefore “the court sentences [you] to one year of imprisonment including the days already served…[and after that you are] condemned to spend two years in exile in the border town of Sarbaz in Sistan and Baluchestan province,” the Christian was told.
The town of his exile, Sarbaz, has a 70 pecent Sunni Muslim population, according to estimates.
Trial observers told BosNewsLife the Christian young man had not been able to afford to hire a lawyer.
The court ruling, which was delivered directly to him last week, came as a major setback for Firouzi, who was recently released after paying 30 million Tomans ($20,000) following 53 days behind bars.
EARLIER DETENTION
Firouzi, a Christian convert resident of Robat-Karim, had been arrested on March 7 when four plainclothes security officers raided his workplace, Christians said.
He was transferred to Tehran’s feared Evin prison where he was allegedly subjected to what Iranian Christians called “intense interrogations” for 10 consecutive days. Christians said the latest case has underscored the dangers of becoming a Christian in the strictly Islamic nation.
Many Christians prefer to organize ‘house churches’ in their own homes as “many Farsi-speaking churches have been closed down in Tehran and other cities across the country and pressure on Christian converts is increasing” adding to security concerns, explained Mohabat News.
Despite the reported crackdown there are at least 100,000 evangelical Christians in the country, according to conservative esatimates.
This wasn’t the first time that Firouzi has been targeted by authorities. He was reportedly detained on January 11, 2011, and after being interrogated was transferred to Ghezel-Hessar prison in Karaj where he spent 154 days in custody.
Firouzi has 20 days to file an appeal against his latest sentence and ask an appeal court to review this ruling, Christian observers said.
(BosNewsLife, the first truly independent news agency covering persecuted Christians, is ‘Breaking the News for Compassionate Professionals’ since 2004).
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Iran has a long and notorious history for the torture and severe treatment of its political prisoners and dissenters. It’s an unfortunate aspect of the rule under Iran’s mullahs who like any other tyrant are more concerned with preserving their power and hold over the people than in governing and leading them into a better future. Khamenei and his handpicked president Rouhani are going to chart a course for Iran that leaves little doubt over the fate of Christians, converts, political opponents, ethnic minorities and all others who are not in lock step with their Islamic view of the world. For all of the attempts at portraying a new moderate face of Iran, Rouhani is a loyal career hardliner. You can see his resume at http://www.hassan-rouhani.info. The only real hope for Iran’s future and political prisoners is regime change.