Christian Solidarity Worldwide has published a letter from Hakop Gochumiyan, a Christian from Armenia who is serving a ten-year prison sentence in Iran, which he wrote following a second rejection of his application for a retrial. His letter recounts human rights violations against him in custody and reports that Ministry of Intelligence investigators threatened to kill him.
Hakop was arrested on 15 August 2023 with his wife Elisa Shahverdian during a holiday in Iran with their children. They were dinner guests at the home of a family friend in Pardis, near Tehran, when officers from the Ministry of Intelligence carried out a raid in which they confiscated personal belongings, including Christian literature, and detained Hakop and Elisa. They were placed in solitary confinement in Evin Prison in Tehran and subjected to long interrogation sessions, and neither was informed of the reason for their detention.
Elisa was released on bail in October 2023 and returned to Armenia where she was reunited with their children, who had returned earlier with a relative. Hakop remained in detention and was eventually charged with “engaging in deviant proselytising activity that contradicts the sacred law of Islam through membership and leadership of a network of evangelical Christianity”. He was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and fined 50,000,000 tomans (approximately € 765).
Hakop lost his appeal against his sentence in June 2024 and the Supreme Court rejected his two applications for a retrial, in February and April 2025.
In his letter, Hakop writes: “The investigation by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence was carried out with gross violations of human rights – the absence of a lawyer or translator and threats to the lives of my family members. I was also subjected to psychological violence. They confessed to the brutal murder of Haik Hovsapian without a drop of shame, describing it in detail, and said that they would kill me in the same way”. (Iranian-Armenian Bishop Haik Hovsapian Mehr disappeared on 19 January 1994 and his family was notified of his death eleven days later. His body was found with multiple stab wounds to the chest.)
Hakop continues, “The charges are fabricated, completely unfair and false, and part of the fabrication was done with the help of a ‘Christian’ traitor. The prison security staff in every way prevented me meeting with my lawyer – not allowing a normal conversation and unauthorisedly recording our conversations, without the right to do so – and they also prevented me meeting with the staff of the Armenian embassy.
“The unfair verdict was handed down by Judge Iman Afshari. The Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have both rejected my appeal, not acknowledging the fact that the charges were fabricated.”
Reaction
CSW’s Founder President Meryvn Thomas commented, “CSW is deeply concerned at the imprisonment of Hakop Gochumiyan on excessive and completely unfounded charges, and following violations of rights guaranteed in Iran’s constitution and in international human rights legislation to which it is party. We are particularly appalled at the severe psychological cruelty inflicted on him by MOIS officers who threatened to reenact their brutal murder of Bishop Hovsapian Mehr. We are also dismayed by the unacceptable infringements on his right to access legal counsel, and by successive rejections of his appeals despite the absence of due process in the legal proceedings that resulted in his conviction. We call for Mr Gochumiyan’s immediate and unconditional release, and urge the international community, and particularly the government of Armenia to hold the Iranian authorities to account, not only for this miscarriage of justice, but also for their continuing mistreatment of countless other prisoners of conscience.”
Read Hakop’s letter and his Prisoner Profile.
(Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Article 18)
Photo credit: CSW