Christian convert Mehdi Akbari was released on 29 September after spending four years and nine months in Evin Prison. His ten-year sentence was reduced to four years and five months by Branch 21 of the Tehran appeal court, the same court that had acquitted Anooshavan Avedian five days previously.

Mehdi, also known as Yasser, was met outside the prison by his family and also by friend and fellow convert Mehdi Rokhparvar, who had been sentenced alongside him and who was released from prison last year.

During his imprisonment Mehdi applied for a retrial with the Supreme Court on five occasions. Four applications were rejected but his fifth, lodged in April 2024, was accepted and Branch 39 of the Supreme Court ruled that the length of his sentence should be reviewed, leading to his appeal court hearing. 

Mehdi was arrested with three fellow Christian converts, including Mehdi Rokhparvar, during coordinated raids on their homes in Tehran in January 2019 and was sentenced to ten years in prison for “acting against national security by forming an illegal evangelical Christian group”.

Mehdi’s only son Amir-Ali, who had cerebral palsy, died aged 18 in December 2021, reportedly due to complications after surgery. The bureaucracy involved in securing leave from prison, including a heavy bail demand, delayed Mehdi’s temporary release and he missed his son’s funeral.

Reaction

Article18’s director Mansour Borji commented, “We welcome the release both of Yasser and Anooshavan, for whom we have long campaigned and neither of whom should have spent even one day in prison. Both Yasser’s reduction of sentence and Anooshavan’s acquittal show clearly how arbitrary their sentences were in the first place, being questioned not only by independent lawyers but also now by the judges of Iran’s own Supreme Court, further demonstrating the baselessness of the accusations that have led these and other Christians to spend years of their lives behind bars.

“We call now for the immediate release of the other at least 20 Christians still in prison only on account of their beliefs and the peaceful outworking of these beliefs, such as Armenian citizen Hakop Gochumyan, who is also serving a ten-year sentence only because he visited some churches and was in possession of a handful of Bibles.

“Iran has for too long targeted Christians simply on account of their beliefs, while at the same time claiming on the world stage that ‘no-one is imprisoned for their beliefs’. The cases of Yasser, Anooshavan, Hakop and many others betray the falsehood of this claim. In reality, evangelical Christians and converts to Christianity, alongside other unrecognised religious groups, continue to be targeted only because of their beliefs. If the Islamic Republic of Iran really wants to build a reputation for being a place where no-one is imprisoned on account of their beliefs, it must immediately release all other religious prisoners of conscience, and fulfil its obligations as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 18 of which enshrines religious freedom, including the freedoms to change one’s beliefs and to share them with others.”

Read Mehdi Akbar’s Prisoner Profile.

(Article 18)

Photo: Article 18