Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) has admitted to arresting over fifty Christians since the end of the conflict with Israel, accusing them of involvement in “anti-security” activities and even possession of arms.
At least 21 Christians were arrested in five cities in the two weeks following the ceasefire on 24 June (in Tehran, Rasht, Orumiyeh, Kermanshah and Varamin) and at least 33 more were arrested by the end of the month, with the number of affected cities nearly quadrupling to include Amol, Lahijan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Garmsar, Hamedan, Miandoab, Isfahan, Karaj, Takestan, Borujerd, Anzali, Neyshabur and Nowshahr. By contrast, forty Christians were arrested in the six months between 1 January and 24 June.
None of the Christians arrested since the conflict has yet been charged and at least eleven have been released on bail. Prior to the conflict there were already over sixty Christians either in detention in Iran or in the process of being tried on charges related to their faith.
The intelligence agency’s crackdown reportedly included Baha’is, Kurds, Baluchis, monarchists and journalists alleged to have participated in anti-regime activities during the conflict. Regarding the Christians, the MOIS claimed to have “neutralised” 53 “Mossad mercenaries” who had been “trained abroad” by churches in the United States and Israel and who had acted “under the guise of the Zionist Christian evangelisation movement”.
In its statement, the MOIS distinguished between evangelical Christians, whom it described as “Zionists”, and the historic Armenian and Assyrian Christian communities, whose members it described as “loyal” supporters.
There are fewer than 100,000 Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Iran, where they are a recognised religious minority and are permitted to meet for worship in their own languages, though not to teach in the national language of Persian nor to allow Iranians from Muslim backgrounds to attend their churches. The majority of Christians in Iran (around 800,000) are converts who are not recognised as Christians and are not permitted to meet for worship.
Commenting on the announcement of the arrests, Article 18’s director Mansour Borji explained, “Many churches around the world make their services accessible to online audiences, and as in Iran Christian converts are prohibited from attending the churches of Armenians and Assyrians, many seek to access the teachings on offer from churches abroad.
“In this case, we know that some of the arrested Christians recently attended a gathering in a neighbouring country organised by an overseas church – again because they are prohibited from attending any such gatherings inside Iran – and were then arrested on their return to Iran.
“But while the preposterous claim of the Ministry of Intelligence is that these Christians have been ‘trained’ for some anti-security purposes, the reality is that they have simply received advice on spiritual matters from abroad, as none is available to them at home.”
Human rights lawyer Hossein Ahmadiniaz told Article 18, “Unfortunately, there is no independent or fair judicial system in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Therefore, all those who are arrested on security, political, ideological or ‘spying’ charges are deprived of a fair and just trial, are severely tortured, and do not even have access to an independent lawyer.
“The statement of the intelligence service has no legal basis and the accusations are not justified by any reason, document or evidence, but are merely based on illusions of conspiracies.
“The truth is that the Islamic Republic has always made such false claims to mislead public opinion and divert attention away from its failings, such as in the war with Israel.”
Article 18 reports that monitoring of news sites linked to Iran’s intelligence agencies has shown a significant increase in hate speech against evangelical Christians during and since the conflict, with many portraying them as co-conspirators with Israel. Several Christian former prisoners of conscience and those whose court cases are ongoing have reportedly received calls from intelligence agencies demanding that they give their opinion about the war.
(Article 18)
Map: Article 18