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Iran Arrests 80 Evangelicals, Amid Fears of New Crackdown on Christians |
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Saturday, 11 September 2004 |
BosNewsLife News Center
 TEHRAN, IRAN - Iranian police invaded the annual conference of Iran’s Assemblies of God and arrested at least 80 church leaders at the church’s denominational center near Tehran as part of the worst crack down on evangelical believers in a decade, a Christian news agency reported Friday, September 10.
Compass news agency said security forces raided the meeting "without warning" in Karaj, 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the capital, after they surrounded the church’s garden property Thursday, September 9.
Eyewitnesses were quoted as saying that all men and women present at the first day of their annual meetings were detained. "The police came from everywhere," an Iranian Christian reportedly said. "There were a lot of them."
The Christian, whose name was not identified apparently for security reasons, claimed that "every single person present was put under arrest, blindfolded and taken in for interrogation."
Compass, which has close contacts with persecuted Christians in the region, said that the detained believers were driven around blindfolded for several hours so they would be unable to understand where they were being taken.
Each of them were reportedly questioned separately by security officials, and the questions revealed that authorities had very precise information about each person, including his or her activities, relatives and other personal data, Compass said, quoting Iranian sources.
Although most of the evangelical leaders were released, ten male pastors were still in custody, and their where whereabouts are unknown to their families, who have not been allowed to contact them, the news agency said.
"This is the biggest crisis for evangelical believers in the country since three Protestant pastors were murdered 10 years ago," another unidentified Iranian source told Compass.
ORDAINED MINISTERS
Six ordained ministers were named among the prisoners, identified by their given names of Vartan, Soren, Harmik, George, Omid and Farhad. Another two men serving as pastors and two church elders were identified as Neshan, Hamid, Henry and Robert. The pastors serve in congregations located in Tehran, Urumiyeh, Rasht, Ahwaz, Boshahr and Karaj.
All the evangelicals released Thursday night were forbidden to attend church services Friday, the weekly day of rest in Iran when most churches meet for worship, Compass reported. "Anyway, all their pastors are now under arrest, so there will be no one to preach when the congregations gather for services," its source said.
"As the world’s only theocracy, Iran has strictly proscribed the activities of its evangelical Christian citizens,
closing down their churches and arresting known converts to Christianity. Under Islamic law, apostates who leave Islam are subject to the death penalty," Compass commented.
Iranian officials have not commented on the case. |
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Iran's nuclear standoff |
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AFP: Iran is using its warm relations with Venezuela to dodge UN sanctions and use Venezuelan aircraft to ship missile parts to Syria, an Italian newspaper reported Sunday.
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AP: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is warning that if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, it could try to attack the United States.
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AP: Arab nations concerned about Iran's nuclear program want to meet regularly with the six international powers trying to ensure that it remains peaceful, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.
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UPI: The Bushehr nuclear facility in Iran is progressing at a rate that it should be operational no later than March 2010, an Iranian official projected Tuesday.
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Reuters: The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany agreed with Arab diplomats to consult regularly on Iran's nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday.
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AFP: Arab nations conferred Tuesday with six nations leading international efforts to convince Tehran to abandon its nuclear program, in a first-of-its-kind briefing at the United Nations.
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Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Dec. 16 – Iran is the 7th country in the world that is producing Uranium Hexaflouride (UF6), the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Mohammad Qannadi said on Monday.
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AFP: Ministers from the six nations involved in talks on Iran's nuclear program will meet Tuesday at the United Nations with representatives of several Arab countries, diplomatic sources said.
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AP: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the sting of international sanctions is forcing at least some Iranian leaders to second-guess the regime's rebuff of world demands that it roll back its disputed nuclear program.
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AFP: Germany wants further sanctions to be imposed against Iran, hitting the banking and transport sectors, according to the weekly Der Spiegel to be published Monday.
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