Armenian citizen Hakop Gochumyan is serving a ten-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison for “proselytising activity that contradicts the sacred law of Islam through membership and leadership of a network of evangelical Christianity”. He has been in prison since August 2023, when he and his wife Elisa Shahverdian were detained near Tehran while they were on holiday in Iran to spend time with relatives. Elisa was released on bail after two months and returned to Armenia but Hakop is not due for release until 2033.
Armenian citizens Hakop Gochumyan (36) and his wife Elisa Shahverdian, who is from an Iranian-Armenian family, visited Iran with their two children in August 2023 to stay with Elisa’s grandmother. Elisa is the daughter of well-known Iranian-Armenian pastor Rafi Shahverdian, who left Iran in 1993 and led a church in the Armenian capital Yerevan until his death in 2023.
On 15 August Hakop, Elisa and their children were having dinner at a friend’s home in Pardis, just outside Tehran, when twelve plainclothes agents from the Ministry of Intelligence raided the property, confiscated personal belongings including some Christian books and took the family to Elisa’s grandmother’s home, which they searched. The agents confiscated Christian books and other personal belongings and took Hakop and Elisa to Evin Prison, leaving the children, then aged seven and ten, in the care of their aunt.
Hakop and Elisa were placed in solitary confinement in Ward 209 of Evin Prison, which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, and were subjected to intense psychological torture and interrogation sessions lasting between two and five hours each. Neither was informed of any official charge against them, in violation of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Iran has ratified without reservation.
Elisa was charged with “propaganda against the state through the promotion of Christianity” and her bail was initially set at the equivalent of €90,000 but it was reduced to €36,000 after her family members protested that they could not afford the amount. She was released on 19 October 2023 and returned to Armenia to be reunited with the children, who had gone home in September with a relative.
Speaking to Article 18 in a video message recorded after her release, Elisa said her time in Evin Prison was “the most difficult two months of my life… We are simple Christians and we haven’t done anything wrong or illegal. Now Christmas is coming and our children keep asking me: ‘When is dad coming home?’ I really don’t know what to tell them.”
In February 2024 Judge Iman Afshari of Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced Hakop to ten years in prison for “engaging in deviant proselytising activity that contradicts the sacred law of Islam through membership and leadership of a network of evangelical Christianity”.
The only pieces of evidence against him were the facts that seven Farsi (Persian-language) New Testaments were in his possession and that he had visited two Armenian churches and a Farsi-speaking house church while on holiday in Iran. Hakop’s lawyer said that the case against his client was so weak that the judge used Article 160 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, which allows judges to exercise “personal intuition” when evidence is lacking.
In June 2024 Hakop was informed that his appeal against his ten year sentence had been unsuccessful.
Crackdown across Iran
Hakop was one of over a hundred Christians detained in a sweeping crackdown across eleven cities in Iran between June and September 2023. His case involved nine other Christians, unidentified for security reasons: four (including Hakop) received ten-year sentences; one received a two-year sentence; five were banned from leaving Iran and from living in Tehran and its neighbouring provinces for two years; and all ten were fined and deprived of rights such as membership of political or social groups. Many personal belongings were confiscated including cash, digital devices and even some properties.
Others detained in the crackdown and later released were forced to sign commitments to refrain from further Christian activities or were ordered to attend Islamic re-education sessions. Some said they were summoned for further questioning following their release or were ordered to leave Iran. One reported that his employment was terminated by order of the Ministry of Intelligence.
Family
Hakop’s wife Elisa Shahverdian is from an Iranian-Armenian family and is the daughter of well-known pastor Rafi Shahverdian, who left Iran in 1993 and led a church in the Armenian capital Yerevan until his death in 2023. Her parents were born in Iran and her relatives still live there. Hakop and Elisa’s two children were aged seven and ten when their parents were detained and an aunt cared for them until Elisa was released. She and the children are back home in Armenia.
TIMELINE
15 August 2023 Hakop and Elisa were detained in a raid by twelve Ministry of Intelligence agents on a house in Pardis, near Tehran, where they were having dinner with friends during a visit to Iran. They were put in solitary confinement in Evin Prison and subjected to psychological torture and intense interrogation.
September 2023 Hakop and Elisa’s children returned home to Armenia with a relative.
19 October 2023 Elisa was released on bail and returned to Armenia to be reunited with the children.
February 2024 Hakop was sentenced to ten years in prison for “engaging in deviant proselytising activity that contradicts the sacred law of Islam through membership and leadership of a network of evangelical Christianity”.
June 2024 Hakop was informed that his appeal against his ten year sentence had been unsuccessful.
Read more about the persecution of Christians in Iran.
(Article 18, USCIRF)
Photo: Article 18