ICC Note: Having spent over three years in prison, Christian convert Mojtaba Seyyed-Alaedin Hossein was reportedly released conditionally on March 18, 2015, just prior to Iranian New Year. He was initially arrested on February 8, 2012 during a string of house raids, one of which led to the discovery of a home being used as a meeting place for Christians. Recent years have seen a rise in arrests and severe treatment of Christians openly worshipping and evangelizing in Iran.

03/28/2015 Iran (Mohabat News) – Mojtaba Seyyed-Alaedin Hossein was conditionally released from Adel-Abad prison on March 18, 2015, just a couple of days before Iranian New Year. He endured more than three years in prison.

His conditional release was granted after receiving three months of pardon for his artistic activities in prison.

Esmaeil (Homayoun) Shokouhi, another Christian prisoner was also granted a 10 day leave permit. Earlier, on November 10 2014, Mr. Shokouhi was conditionally released after serving 2 years and 8 months in prison. However, a few days after his release, a Revolutionary Court judge announced that this conditional release should not have been granted and requested that Mr. Shokouhi be taken back to prison.

A group of Chrisitians, including Mojtaba Seyyed-Alaedin Hossein, [(Shiraz in Fars province, 934 KMs south of Tehran, the capital)] Esmaeil (Homayoun) Shokouhi, Vahid Hakkani, and Mohammad-Reza (Kourosh) Partoei, were arrested on February 8, 2012 during a raid by security authorities on their houses. One of the houses that were raided was being used as a meeting placeplac for Christian believers. The Revolutionary Court of Shiraz sentenced each of these men to three years and eight months in prison for “attending house churches, evangelism, contact with foreign Christian ministries, propaganda against the Islamic regime through evangelism and disrupting national security”.

Christians actively evangelizing among Farsi-speaking Iranians have been subject to arrests and severe punishment by the Iranian authorities in recent years.

Mansour Borji, spokesman of the Article 18 committee, believes that raising security accusations against Iranian Christians is used as a cover to justify a crack down on religious activities of Christians in the country. Mr. Borji added, “In order to avoid international controversy, the Iranian regime accuses prisoners of conscience of security charges and restricts their religious freedom through ambiguous and irrational interpretations of law”.

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