ICC Note: The mother of Iranian Christian prisoner, Ebrahim Firouzi, is pleading with the Iranian judicial authorities to release him for her sake. Mr. Firouzi’s elderly mother explained through sobs, that she is visually impaired and has nobody else to help her with daily activities. Due to her health she cannot travel from court to court monitoring her son’s case and she cannot visit him in prison without help. Ebrahim serving a five year sentence for his Christian faith and activity in Iran.

08/24/2016 Iran (Mohabat News): In a message addressed to the Iranian judicial authorities, Ebrahim Firouzi’s mother has called on them to handle his case fairly and release him.

Crying as she delivered the message to the authorities, Mr. Firouzi’s elderly mother said that she is visually impaired and there is nothing she can do and has no one to help her. She said she doesn’t have the ability to go from court to court and follow up on her son’s case.

She added that she misses her son and because of her disability she has not been able to visit her son in prison. She pleaded with the authorities to release her son so he can come home.

Earlier in an open letter, Mr. Firouzi had stated he will not be attending his appeals court hearing because he has not been given access to his defense documents. However, prison authorities forcibly took him to the court, where the judge was not present so the appeals court hearing was postponed to four months later.

What is evident in the case of Mr. Firouzi and of several other Christian prisoners, is the Iranian government’s systematic violation of their Human Rights. The United States’ Commission on International Religious Freedom has listed Iran as one of the “countries of particular concern” over religious freedom.

Ebrahim Firouzi is serving a five year sentence for his Christian activities.

According to the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center database of prisoners, by the end of the last year, at least 380 religious prisoners were held in Iranian prisons, solely as a result of their religious activities. Among the 380 religious prisoners there are 250 Sunni Muslims, 82 Baha’i, 26 Christians, 16 Sufis, 10 Dervishes, three Sunni converts from Shiite Islam and two Zoroastrians.

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