UPDATE (23 December 2025): Aida Najaflou was released on bail on Sunday 21 December.
Five Christians have been given prison sentences totalling over fifty years for their religious activities. Charges against them included “gathering and collusion” and “propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran”. According to the prosecutor, evidence of their “crimes” included establishing a home church, holding prayer meetings, conducting baptism, taking communion and celebrating Christmas.
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 identified only as Mahfouz, not pictured. They received ten-year prison sentences except for Lida, who received an eight year sentence. Aida was sentenced to an additional two years on “propaganda” charges related to social media posts.
The sentences were handed down by notorious judge Abolqasem Salavati following a hearing at the 15th Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran on 21 October, but were only communicated to the Christians verbally within the past two weeks. They have twenty days to appeal, and Article 18 understands that they intend to do so.
Naser and Joseph were previously imprisoned on charges related to their house-church activities but they were re-arrested in February and have been in Evin Prison since then. 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. Lida was arrested in April and was placed in solitary confinement in Evin Prison before being released on bail in May.
Aida, who suffers with rheumatoid arthritis, was arrested in February and was held for 65 days in solitary confinement in Evin Prison before being transferred to the women’s ward. She fractured her spine in a fall in October and has received inadequate care during her recovery – she had spinal surgery after fellow-prisoners protested about the lack of care, but was sent back to prison too soon and had to be re-admitted to hospital in November after a wound from her surgery became infected. She spent six days there before being returned to prison. On 7 December Aida’s lawyer posted on X that she was concerned for her client’s long-term health amid fears of spinal cord damage if her condition is not managed properly.
Naser suffered a stroke in March after going on hunger strike to protest against his re-arrest, and Joseph has also suffered from ill health in prison.
Article 18’s director Mansour Borji said the trial “bore many hallmarks of a lack of due process”, such as long pre-trial detention and extremely high bail demands. Joseph, Aida and Naser were detained for seven months before they were brought before a court. No bail was set for Joseph, and Aida and Naser’s families could not afford their bail demands.
Reaction
The June indictment against the Christians began with a quote from a speech made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in October 2010, in which he said the spread of house churches was among the “critical threats” facing the Islamic Republic.
Mansour Borji stated, “In my view, Khamenei’s 2010 hate speech can therefore be understood to be directly responsible for the violence suffered by these and many other Christians. The prosecutor goes on to suggest that Protestantism and ‘Zionist Christianity’ are one and the same, demonstrating how Iran’s intelligence agencies twist reality to guarantee convictions. He also wrongly presupposes that Iranian Christian organisations abroad are agents of foreign intelligence agencies, without offering a shred of evidence. And all of this is to justify and rationalise judicial violence.”
The prosecutor wrote that Joseph “is proud of his criminal activities… In accordance with the teachings of the Protestant and Assemblies of God churches, the defendant considers the purpose and motivation of his evangelistic activities to be fulfilling the command and will of Christ to deliver the message of the Gospel to all nations and peoples of the world.”
Regarding Naser, he wrote: “The defendant, aware of the illegality of distributing evangelistic books, began distributing Bibles and Holy Scriptures… On several occasions, he has taken deliveries of the Persian Bible and kept them in his home. In his confession, the defendant explains the reason for this mission as follows: ‘This action is part of my faith as a Christian. I would like to learn Christian theology and share it with my loved ones in Christ.’”
Mr Borji commented: “These examples demonstrate clearly how Iranian Christians like Joseph, Nasser, Aida, Lida and the fifth Christian are convicted for no other reason than their ordinary Christian activities – including wanting to share their beliefs with others, and to provide them with the opportunity to read the Christian holy book. Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic of Iran claims to provide its citizens with religious freedom, when demonstrably no such freedom of choice exists.”
(Article 18, Middle East Concern)
Photos: Article 18