Five Christian converts have been sentenced to a total of over 25 years in prison by the Iranian judiciary, according to a Friday Iran International report.
According to the human rights group Hengraw, which was created in 2016 to report on the human rights violations against Kurds in Iran, there has been no available information about the specific reason for the charge against the five Christian converts or the details of their accusations.
Those sentenced to jail
The sentences handed down include a 10-year jail term for Christian convert Hamid Afzali, along with five-year jail terms for Nasrollah Mousavi, Bijan Gholizadeh, and Iman Salehi. Zohrab Shahbazi received nine months of jail time.
The report explained that while Christians are “acknowledged as a religious minority in Iran, authorities impose severe penalties, especially on those who convert from Islam to Christianity.”
Hengraw noted that Yasin Mousavi was another Christian convert who was arrested. He was “sentenced to 15 years in prison by the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
According to Hengraw, Mousavi was among those arrested in the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, which took place in 2022.
Prominent Iranian political prisoner Fatemeh Sepehri, who in the past has criticized the Islamic Republic and was also arrested during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, was sentenced last week to an additional 18 and a half years in prison after condemning the Hamas October 7 attacks and supporting Israel.
