An appeals court has upheld sentences totalling over seventy years imposed on five Christians last October for religious activities that included establishing a house church, holding prayer meetings, conducting baptism, taking communion and celebrating Christmas. They have now been told that their appeals have failed, though no hearing took place.

The five Christians are (pictured, from left): Christian convert Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh, Iranian-Armenians Pastor Joseph Shahbazian and his wife Lida Alexani and converts Aida Najaflou and a woman whose name has not been made public and who is not pictured.

Commenting on the length of the five Christians’ sentences, Article 18 explains: “It was initially reported that the Christians had been sentenced to over fifty years in prison, but as more details have become clear, it is now known that their combined sentences total at least 71 years.”

Naser, Joseph, Aida and the unnamed woman received ten-year sentences on national security and propaganda charges, while Lida was given eight years. The three women received additional five-year terms for “gathering and collusion”, while Joseph was given six years, and Aida received an additional two-year sentence on propaganda charges related to social media posts. It remains unclear whether Naser, who did not appeal against the verdict, received an additional sentence.

In practice they must serve a combined 48 years in prison, as only the highest sentence is enforced when there is more than one.

Lida was arrested in April 2025 and was placed in solitary confinement in Evin Prison before being released on bail in May to await her appeal hearing, while Aida was arrested in February 2025 and released on bail in December. She suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and fractured her spine after falling out her bunk bed in Evin Prison in October.

Joseph and Naser, who were previously imprisoned on charges related to their house-church activities, were re-arrested in February 2025 and have been in Evin Prison ever since. Naser served nearly half of a ten-year sentence before being pardoned and released in October 2022, while Joseph served just over a year of a ten-year sentence (reduced to two years following a retrial) before being pardoned and released in September 2023.

During the Christians’ arrests, personal property including Bibles and other Christian literature was confiscated for the “research” purposes of the Ministry of Intelligence. Article 18 reports that this happened in another case last year involving two Christians sentenced to twelve years each in prison for “smuggling” Bibles into Iran.

(Article 18)

Photos: Article 18