Three Christians sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran for hosting worship at home

TEHRAN — Iran’s policy of repression and marginalization against Christians continues, with Iranian Christians arrested under various pretexts.

London-based “Article 18”, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of religious freedom in Iran, stated that the Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced three Christians for 10 years in prison on charges of forming hosting religious worship in their homes, or what a notorious judge called “propaganda contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam.”

The rulings also imposed fines and deprivation of social rights.

The three Christians, two of them converts and one ethnic Armenian, were accused of forming and running an illegal group and of acting against national security.

Commenting on their rulings, their lawyer Eman Soleimani told human rights organization Hrana that “no attention was paid to the defense” and “the verdict was issued based solely on the testimony of security officers.”

According to the World Christian Database, there are about 547,000 Christians in Iran. Other reports put the number anywhere between 300,000 and 1 million. There are no statistics on the number of Iranian converts to Christianity.

Though Christians are one of three recognized religious minorities in Iran, in practice, only ethnic Armenians and Assyrians are permitted a degree of freedom to worship and only within their own ethnic tongues and not the national Persian language.

According to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran Javaid Rehman announced that at least 53 Christians were arrested in Iran for their religious faith in 2021.