Authorities
in Iran are increasingly targeting Christian converts with arrests and
imprisonments, according to the New York-based Center for Human Rights In
Iran.
"In
less than two months, since June 2017, Judge Mashallah Ahmadzadeh of Branch 26
of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran has issued long prison sentences to at
least 11 Christian converts and the former leader of the Assyrian Pentecostal
Church in Iran," CHRI said in a report.
"Christians
are recognized as an official religious minority in Iran's Constitution, but the
state continues to persecute members of the faith, especially converts," said
CHRI's executive director Hadi Ghaemi. "The state must respect its own laws and
international obligations and allow Christians and all religious minorities full
freedom of worship."
