ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, highlights the plight of Christian pastors in Iran…
London, UK
On 9th July Iranian Pastor Matthias Haghnejad was transferred to a prison over 1,000 miles from his home in Bandar Anzali. A leader in the Church of Iran denomination, he is currently imprisoned on charges that he was acquitted of in 2014, but which were reinstated last year, and now faces another charge of ‘undermining national security’ after a couple from his denomination was pressurised into making the accusation.
The pastor has never met the couple, but this is the strategy of the Iranian Government, not only to harass and imprison Christian leaders like Pastor Haghnejad, but also to make life difficult for their families and congregations in order to further compound their distress.
Top – Pastor Matthias Haghnejad and below, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. PICTURES: Courtesy of CSW
Pastor Haghnejad has been in and out of prison since February, 2019; he was first arrested by members of the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard after a church service on 10th February, with an additional eight Christians detained following a series of arrests in the following weeks.
The nine men were subsequently sentenced to five years in prison following a short trial in September, 2019, on charges of ‘endangering state security’ and ‘promoting Zionist Christianity’ – common charges levied against Christians, and particularly Christian converts, by the Iranian authorities.
They spent nearly three years in prison before being released in January, 2022, pending a review of their sentences, after the Iranian Supreme Court ruled that “merely preaching Christianity” should not be deemed a threat to national security.
All nine were eventually acquitted in February, 2022, but by this point Pastor Haghnejad had already been re-arrested and given a six year sentence for “acting against the security of the country by forming a group and propagating Christianity outside the church and in the house church, and giving information to the enemies of Islam”.
As mentioned, he had already been acquitted of these charges, which were clearly renewed as a means of continuing the effective judicial persecution of the pastor. According to CSW’s sources, the 2014 charges were reactivated on 25th November, 2019, after Iran’s political police were granted permission from President Ebrahim Raisi, who at that time was Iran’s Chief Justice, for the Supreme Court decision in Pastor Haghnejad’s favour to be overturned.
Pastor Haghnejad’s wife, Anahita Khademi, has also been targeted, spending over three weeks in Lakan prison in Rasht on charges of ‘propaganda against the system’ and ‘disturbing public opinion,’ for which she was released on bail on 28th January this year.
The many developments in Pastor Haghnejad’s case are complex by design: every time he and his family feel as though their ordeal may be over, the Iranian authorities find a new way of prolonging their pain.
The same is true of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, another Church of Iran leader who was also recently accused of ‘undermining national security’ by the same couple that was pressured into incriminating Pastor Haghnejad.
In this case, Pastor Nadarkhani is only vaguely acquainted with the couple, particularly given that he has spent much of the past five years in prison. He was one of four Christians arrested in Rasht on 13th May, 2016, during a series of raids by security agents on Christian homes. All were released on bail in 2017 only to be re-arrested in another series of raids between 22nd and 25th July, 2018, upon which they were taken to serve prison sentences on charges of ‘acting against national security’ by ‘promoting Zionist Christianity’.
Pastor Nadarkhani was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison, later reduced to six on appeal, and on 26th February, 2023 he was released as part of a national amnesty issued by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to commemorate the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Now, he and his family nervously await the outcome of this latest accusation. On 8th July he appeared at the court in Rasht to which he was summoned; however, upon his arrival he found the judge was absent. Once again, the Iranian authorities are prolonging the suffering of an innocent family due to Pastor Nadarkhani’s espousal of Christianity – as is his fundamental human right – and his leadership of a house church.
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The targeting of religion and belief minorities by Iranian authorities is not limited to Christians – Christianity is in fact one of the few religions that is at least recognised in the Iranian constitution. However, adherents of Baha’ism, Mandaeism and Yarsanism, as well as atheists, enjoy no official recognition, and therefore no avenue of protection of their right to freedom of religion or belief.
In addition, the mistreatment of peaceful protesters by the authorities over the past ten months has been well-documented, with reports of the indiscriminate use of live ammunition against unarmed protesters, the inflicting of sexual and gender-based violence and torture on detainees, and the application of vaguely-defined religious charges and perfunctory trials in order to pass death sentences on demonstrators.
The country is in dire need of breakthrough; the international community must formulate effective measures to hold to account Iranian officials suspected of committing crimes under international law, and penalising Iranian oligarchs and their families living abroad, and as citizens we must pray and advocate until leaders like Pastors Haghnejad and Nadarkhani and their families are truly free.
Ellis Heasley is public affairs officer at UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW.
