ISTANBUL (BP) -- Iranian authorities in early February arrested Christian converts from Islam while they were meeting for worship at a home in the southern city of Shiraz, according to sources.
Officials are holding the Christians at an unknown location, they told Compass Direct News.
Officials are holding the Christians at an unknown location, they told Compass Direct News.
The identity of only one of those arrested on Feb. 8, Mojtaba Hosseini, was known. Authorities arrested Hosseini in 2008 along with eight other Christian converts on charges of being Christians, according to Mohabat News.
"I guess they have been watching Hosseini since then," an Iranian Christian who requested anonymity told Compass.
Shiraz is not a particularly "religious" part of predominantly Shiite Islamic Iran, the Christian explained, but persecution against Christians in Iran stems from the government more than from local religious sentiment. The families of the victims have requested information about their whereabouts, but authorities have refused to provide it, according to Mohabat News.
In past years authorities have arrested Christians around Christmas time, and the Compass source said that the international community and media monitoring religious rights in Iran were expecting another crackdown last December. Instead, he said, the government was more cautious and arrested small groups over a wider period of time.
In December authorities arrested a group of Christian converts in the city of Ahwaz, about 540 miles southwest of Tehran in Khuzestan Province. Of those arrested, three Christians remain in prison: Pastor Farhad Sabokroh, Naser Zamen-Defzuli and Davoud Alijani. They are held in Ahwaz's Karoun Prison, according to Mohabat News.
Sources have expressed concern for Sabokroh's health. Prior to his arrest, which took place at his church's Christmas service on Dec. 23, Sabokroh underwent cataract surgery. In prison he does not have access to the medication he needs for his eyes. His wife visited him briefly on Jan. 27 and said she was concerned about his health, as he has lost a lot of weight, according to Mohabat News.
Authorities had also arrested Sabokroh's wife at the Christmas service and released her on Jan. 1 when she submitted the deed of a house as bail, according to Mohabat News. Christians are forced to put their homes up as bail in Iran, a practice that sources say is an extortion tactic to erode them of their finances and to better control them.
Authorities have not formally charged Sabokroh, Zamen-Defzuli and Alijani.
Iranian authorities continue to arrest and subject Christians to harsh treatment, but many of these cases remain unknown to the outside world. At the end of January, Mohabat News released information on the case of Leila Mohammadi, whom authorities had arrested in July last year.
She spent 74 days in solitary confinement at Tehran's Evin prison. On Jan. 18 a judge sentenced her to two years of prison for "collaborating with foreign-dependent groups, broad anti-Islamic propaganda, deceiving citizens by forming house churches, insulting sacred figures and acting against national security," according to Mohabat News.
Authorities released her on bail on Dec. 28, 2011, and her attorney has sent her case to Tehran Province's high court.
Iran applies sharia (Islamic law), which dictates that converts from Islam to other religions are "apostates" and thus punishable by death. Although judges rarely sentence Christians to death for leaving Islam, one Christian, Yousef (also spelled Youcef) Nadarkhani, is appealing such a decision in the northeastern city of Rasht.
Nadarkhani has been in prison since October 2009. A Rasht court found him guilty of leaving Islam and handed him the death sentence in September 2010.
Asked if there was a change in persecution trends from previous years, the Compass source said, "Nothing has changed, the issue is the same," explaining that the attitude of the government toward Christians remains hostile.
Authorities have prohibited musical worship and Bible distribution at the Central Church of Tehran, the largest and most visible Assemblies of God church in the country. Last December officials enforced a policy under which only invited guests could attend a Christmas service at the church, and in December 2009 the church succumbed to intense pressure by authorities to discontinue its Friday services, which had attracted the most converts to Christianity.
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This story first appeared in Compass Direct News (www.compassdirect.org). Based in Santa Ana, Calif., Compass focuses on Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Used by permission.
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