On 6 February Naser Gol Tapeh and Joseph Shabazian were re-arrested at their homes in the Tehran region by intelligence agents and taken back to Evin Prison, where they had both been previously imprisoned. According to Article 18, Naser is on hunger strike in protest at his unlawful re-arrest.
Sources state that a number of other Tehran Christians were also arrested at the same time and taken into custody. The reasons for the arrests are unclear, as is the legal basis for them; intelligence agents often operate outside the scope of Iran’s judicial system.
Christian convert Naser (63) was pardoned and released from Evin Prison in October 2022 after serving nearly five years of his ten-year prison sentence. He was first arrested in June 2016 in a raid on an engagement party held by Christians near Tehran and struggled with several health issues while in prison, ranging from severe gum disease to several bouts of Covid-19 and hearing loss. Naser is single and lived with his elderly mother Sahab Fazli before his previous imprisonment. Sahab died, at the age of 85, only one month after Naser was released from prison.
Joseph, a 60-year-old Armenian-Iranian house-church leader, was pardoned and released from Evin Prison in September 2023 after serving just over a year of his ten-year-sentence. He was first arrested in June 2020 in a raid on a house-church gathering and is married, with a son.
On 20 January a joint annual report was published by Article 18, Open Doors, Middle East Concern and Christian Solidarity Worldwide concerning human rights violations against Christians in Iran. One of the report’s recommendations is that the Iranian authorities “end the criminalisation of house-church organisation and membership” and it asks for clarification on “where Persian-speaking Christians may worship freely in their mother tongue, without fear of arrest and prosecution”.
It also calls on the authorities to “drop all charges against Christians related to church activities deemed lawful by the Iranian Supreme Court” which is a reference to a ruling from 2021 in Tehran that involvement in house churches should not be considered an “action against national security”.
(Article 18)