ICC Note: After serving a 6 year prison sentence for his Christian faith and activity, Iranian pastor Behnam Irani has been released on Oct. 18. Irani, 43, was sentenced with a one year prison term in 2011, but was later told he would have to serve an additional five years, a previously suspended sentence. Irani was the leader of a 300 strong house church when he was arrested in 2011. Though he is in poor health, he is high in spirits.

10/18/2016 Iran (BosNewsLife):  Iranian pastor Behnam Irani has been released from prison after serving some six years behind bars for charges linked to his Christian activities, friends with close knowledge about the situation told BosNewsLife Tuesday, October 18.

“Irani has been released from prison and is now free,” confirmed advocacy group Present Truth Ministries (PTM), which closely followed the case. “We thank you all for your prayers. The Lord has preserved him in a mighty way!”, added PTM in a statement.

The 43-year-old Irani of Karaj city began a one-year prison term in 2011 but was later told he would also have to serve a five-year, previously suspended, sentence for “crimes against national security”.

Those years behind bars followed earlier detentions on similar charges. “The first time he was arrested in December 2006” before being released a month later in January 2007, PTM recalled. “On February 23, 2008, the Branch 30 of the Appellate Court in Tehran gave him a five year suspended sentence. Since it was a suspended sentence he was not required to go to prison, but was free on a five-year probation.”

However Irani continued his activities as an effective evangelical pastor of a 300-strong house church congregation of the evangelical Church of Iran movement, raising anger among authorities in this strict Islamic nation.

…

[Full Story]