Who is to secure Christian prisoners’ safety after they are released?

Saturday, 15 September 2012

According to a received report, almost 90 percent of Iranian Christian or security prisoners flee their hometown or country against their personal will. The primary reason for this could be the matter of security of their life and their family. Truly who is responsible to secure these prisoners' safety, despite all these threats by the government, after they are released?

Mohabat News – Mr. Nadarkhani's lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah announced on September 8, 2012 that his client who had been sentenced to death on apostasy charges was acquitted of all charges and released from prison. He added, "My client was sentenced to three years in prison for "propagating against the regime". Because he has already served these three years, he was released".

Yousef Nadarkhani is a non-Trinitarian Christian and is affiliated with a small group called "Church of Iran". He was arrested in October 2009 for "leaving Islam" and spreading his faith among Muslims.

The Iranian high court confirmed that Nadarkhani is an apostate and ruled that this verdict will be cancelled only under one condition and that is that he repents and returns to Islam. Later, as a result of intense reaction from the International community to this verdict, the verdict was sent to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, and he was asked to decide on this case. Eventually, Iran's Supreme Leader announced some months ago that it would be better if the appeal court were held again to review his "apostasy" charge.

After this Mr. Gholam Ali Rezvani, Deputy for Political and Security issues of Gilan province, claimed in an interview with Fars semi-official news agency, "Yousef Nadarkhani is a Zionist who has established houses of corruption"! He continued, "This man is a criminal and his crime is that he has invited a number of people to Christianity. Of course he has committed some security crimes as well"!

At that time when the risk of execution of Nadarkhani was raised, Germany and Poland summoned Iranian ambassadors in their countries and some U.S. and Britain officials called for the cancellation of his death sentence. Also, the European Union, calling for a stop to executions in Iran, expressed its concern over the intense situation of Christian and other religious minorities in the country.

It is notable that Islamic Republic's agents did all they could in the cyber space to prevent Mohabat News from spreading this news. As part of their anti-Christian activities, some anonymous hackers attacked the Mohabat News website at the same time Nadarkhani was released from prison on September 8. As a result of this cyber-attack and due to the damages they caused, Mohabat News became inaccessible for 5 days. However, the Mohabat News technical team managed to solve the problem and make the site available to the public again.

Although Nadarkhani's release was broadly welcomed, it should be said that other prisoners are still behind bars in different cities of Iran simply because they have converted to Christianity.

- Christian prisoner's release, Social security?!

According to a received report, almost 90 percent of former Iranian Christian or security prisoners flee their hometown or country against their personal will. The primary reason for this seems to be the matter of security of their life and their family. A Mohabat News reporter interviewed some Christians who were forced to leave their country after their release from prison and asked them about their decision to do so.

Davoud is a Christian convert who currently resides in Norway. He told a Mohabat News reporter, "I had been arrested in a house church in Shiraz three years ago. I was temporarily released after two months in custody. Concerning his reluctant emigration to seek asylum in a foreign country he said, "Beating and insulting me, the interrogator in prison clearly told me that Iran is an Islamic country and we will cleanse this country of you (...) and you have no place in this country".

Emmanuel is another Christian convert, who is not using his real name to keep his identity secret. He is currently seeking asylum in Turkey and is waiting for his interview with UNHCR. He told Mohabat News, "I was a government employee in Karaj and at the same time was teaching in a house church. There were 18 Christians gathering in that house church and I was teaching them Christian theological principals. After our meeting place was identified by the government, security authorities raided my home and thoroughly searched it. They arrested me and took me to the Rajaei-Shahr prison in Karaj and then transferred me to Evin prison. During this time I was subjected to severe interrogations. They temporarily released me on bail and I was awaiting my trial. The Ministry of Intelligence sent a letter to my workplace after my release. Since I was working on a contract and was absent for three months, I could not go back to work and they fired me. After this I lost all my personal rights and had no respect in the community. Nobody was willing to employ me because of the threats from the security authorities. I had no way to survive with my family other than leaving Iran illegally. I came to Turkey and applied for refugee status in UNHCR.

Farshad (not his real name) is another Christian convert currently living in Austria. He was arrested as part of the broad wave of arrests that hit the Christian community in Tehran in December 2010. He says, "After I was arrested, the interrogator in Evin prison told me we are watching all your and your family's moves. He also told me that if you don't cooperate with us (the Intelligence office) you can expect any kind of accident for yourself or your child after you are released from prison.

- Islamic Republic's Black Repertoire

(Christian martyrs killed by Islamic Regime of Iran)

The shameful and black record of the Islamic Republic clearly shows that release of a security, Christian or political prisoner does not necessarily mean the closure of his/her case. The oppressive Islamic regime does not leave them alone. Rev. Mehdi Dibaj is an example of this. The Islamic court of Sari sentenced him to death for apostasy in 1993. However, as a result of Rev. Haik Hovsepian's efforts and International pressures, he was eventually released from prison on January 16, 1994. Three days later, Rev. Haik Hovsepian was kidnapped on his way to Mehrabad airport and eleven days after that his body was found in a coroner's office in Tehran. He had been stabbed 26 times with a knife. Only six months after Rev. Haik was killed, Rev. Dibaj's body was also found dead in the forest near the suburbs of Karaj.

Also, five days before Rev. Dibaj was killed in July 1994, Pastor Tatavous Michaelian, an author and pastor of an evangelical church in Iran was shot dead. In another case two years prior to Pastor Michaelian's killing, another pastor from the north of Iran, Pastor Mohammad Bagher Yousefi also known as Ravanbakhsh was found hung in the forest north of Iran. More recently, Mr. Ghorban Tourani, a 50 year old leader of a house church was killed in front of his house in 2005 by having his throat cut.

The Islamic regime's hand has been dipped in the blood and has a long history of assassinating and killing security, political and Christian prisoners. Pastor Arastoo Sayyah was killed in 1979 in Shiraz. Bahram, son of Bishop Hassan Dehghani Tafti, was kidnapped in Tehran and shot dead in the suburbs of Tehran. Pastor Hossein Soudmand is another martyr who was hung for apostasy in 1992 in the prison of Mashhad.

This is only a glimpse of the Islamic regime's crimes against Iranian Christians in the last three decades of its existence. This situation has caused many Iranian Christians to leave their country for fear of their lives and leave everything behind in order to deliver themselves and their families from the evil of the Islamic regime of Iran