Originally published in Persecution International
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on September 22 Iran’s judiciary affirmed the jail sentences of two Christians. The verdict wrote that believing in the Bible’s authority and Jesus as Lord are attacks against Islam.
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Saheb Fadaie was sentenced to 18 months and Fatemeh Bakhteri to 12 months in prison for “spreading propaganda against the regime”.
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Dr Mike Ansari of Heart4Iran, an Iranian Christian partnership platform, told ICC: “If there is no codified law with respect to a particular issue, judges must deliver their judgments on the basis of authoritative Islamic sources. Iranian courts typically follow the lead of conservative clerics such as Ayatollah Khomeini who viewed apostasy a crime punishable by death.”
“In the last few years, most extrajudicial killings in Iran have been slowly replaced with arbitrary arrest and detention,” Ansari continued. “Most of the arrested individuals are coerced to divulge information about their house church activities and those of their friends, under the threat of criminal persecution or arrest of family members.”
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Judge Mashaullah Ahmadzadeh was one of the judges involved in the sentencing. He is the head of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, Branch 26. He is heavily complicit in Iran’s human rights abuses, and has presided over several cases which led to the imprisonment of Christians. The purpose of the Revolutionary Court is to try ideological opponents of the Islamic regime.
Judge Ahmad Zargar is currently on the European Union’s sanctions list for serious human rights violations, including overseeing miscarriages of justice. In addition to his role as an appeal judge, he is a hojjatolislam, a clerical position immediately below that of an ayatollah. He presided over Fadaie’s appeal, as well as those of several other Christian prisoners.
Both Christians were arrested while attending a house church in May 2017. Fadaie is currently serving a separate jail sentence in Evin Prison, Iran’s most notorious jail. Their sentencing comes at a time when the Iranian regime has increased the amount of pressure on the Church.
“As Christianity grows rapidly in Iran, the Islamic government and the clergy in power are alarmed. Their only strategy to slow down this growth is through a campaign of fear, violence, and intimidation… We expect the persecution in Iran will increase as the Islamic government feels threatened by the spread of Christianity among Muslims in Iran,” explained Dr Hormoz Shariat, president and founder of Iran Alive Ministries.
Claire Evans, ICC’s Regional Manager, said: “The suppression of religious freedom and abuse of humans rights is what we have come to expect from Iran’s judiciary. The judiciary is not only sentencing Christians to jail — they are sending them to be tortured while imprisoned and harassed for life by the Intelligence Ministry. By deepening its criminalisation of the Christian faith, the judiciary is inflicting significant and irreversible trauma on believers.”
Jesus said: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John15:18) “In this world you will have tribulation, but take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) “They who came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb are before the throne of God who spreads his tent over them” (Rev 7:14,15). Paul endured many persuctions, for it’s a fact: everyone who wants to live a godlymlife in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). Older South Korean Church leaders who had survived serious persecutions under Japanese Shintoism and Marxist Communism told me they feared for the Church in its current peace and prosperity, because “the Church can’t survive without persecution”.