Iran: Jailed Christians denied Christmas
A 35-year-old Armenian, Hakop Gochumyan, was visiting a friend's house just outside the capital when plainclothes police arrested him. His personal belongings and Christian books were also seized. Four months later, his wife was released on bail while he is still jailed. This story is one of many, but others often prefer to remain anonymous hoping for release.
Tehran (AsiaNews) – In Iran, Christmas for some Christians is a dark cell, in one of the country’s most notorious prisons, held without charges, aware that they were locked away only for their faith with no prospect for indictment that would enable them to defend themselves, deprived of rights even more than their liberty.
This is the case of an Armenian man, one of a hundred Christians arrested last summer and held in Evin prison, north of Tehran, who, after four months, is still unaware of his fate, with the only certainty of spending the holiday away from his family.
The story of 35-year-old Hakop Gochumyan is relayed by Article18, an advocacy group seeking to protect and promote religious freedom in Iran and on behalf of its persecuted Christians.
The Armenian national was visiting Iran with his wife Elissa, who has dual Armenian-Iranian citizenship, and their two children. On 15 August, the two adults were arrested in Pardis, on the outskirts of Tehran.
According to some witnesses, the couple, with their children aged seven and 10, were at a friend's house for lunch when a dozen plainclothes agents from the Ministry of Intelligence burst in and took them away.
After searching the house, they brought Hakop and Elissa to Evin prison, placed the couple's children in the care of an aunt, and seized their personal belongings, including Christian books.
Since then, the couple have been held in solitary confinement in the infamous Ward 209, subjected to intense psychological torture and repeated interrogations, each lasting between two and five hours.
Iranian authorities have not laid any formal charges against Hakop and Elissa while keeping them in custody, in violation of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Iran.
After more than two months of detention, Elissa was released on 19 October on US$ 40,000 bail (down from US$ 100,000), which allowed her to return to Armenia to her two children, who had previously been repatriated with a relative. Her husband, instead, has remained in prison all this time.
Speaking to Article18, his wife said that secret service agents accused her of involvement in “illegal Christian activities”.
She said she did not know where the accusation came from, noting that neither she nor her husband had done anything illegal, nor engaged in any Christian activities during their visit to Iran.
Elissa is the daughter of a well-known Iranian-Armenian pastor, Rafi Shahverdian, who passed away earlier this year. He led a church in Yerevan after he left Iran in 1993.
Anti-Christian persecution is a further evidence that religious freedom in Iran is in “sharp regression” in parallel with the growing repression by the authorities against protests that broke out following the death of Mahsa Amini in the hands of the morality police.
In its 2023 report, published last May, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom describes the Islamic Republic as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its “systematic, egregious and ongoing violations”.
More than a hundred Christians, mostly converts from Islam but also several Assyrian-Chaldeans baptised at an early age, were arrested between June and September in 11 different cities.
Another 69 have been arrested and at least 10 – four men and six women – have been held in detention, various advocacy groups have reported on their website. For those out on bail, families paid amounts ranging from US$ 8,000 to US$ 40,000.
This wave of arrests also coincided with a new crackdown against Iran’s Baha'i community, which along with Christian converts is another group not recognised by Iranian authorities.
Some of those released had to sign a pledge to refrain from further Christian activities or had to participate in Islamic re-education sessions. Others were summoned for further questioning, lost their jobs, or were deported.
Two of the Christians detained because of their faith will spend Christmas under lock and key in an undisclosed location; the two are brothers, one of whom is a known, former prisoner of conscience.
Milad Goodarzi was released earlier this year as part of a broader amnesty for detainees to mark the Islamic Republic's 44th anniversary.
Like many other prisoners, Milad had already served most of his three-year sentence, reduced from five, for “engaging in propaganda that educates in a deviant way contrary to the holy religion of Islam”.
Milad’s case has received wide coverage, but that is not the case for many others. Instead, most Christians arrested this year have opted not to publicise their situation, hoping it may help their case, adding to a growing sense of faceless victims.
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12/04/2023 12:05
