Iran

Iran has acquitted "on all charges" two young women who were detained fourteen months ago "for their Christian faith and activities" and abandoning Islam, Iranian church officials confirmed Sunday, May 23.

Iran's government has launched a massive crackdown on devoted Christians, including church leaders, as part of efforts to halt the growing Christian church in the Islamic nation, Iranian Christians and rights activists said Friday, April 23.

An Iranian pastor jailed for 54 days on charges of "converting Muslims" to Christianity, spent Easter in freedom this weekend after he was temporary released on bail along with several other believers, Iranian Christians and rights investigators said.

The detained Assyrian pastor of an evangelical church in Iran has been tortured and told he may be executed for converting Muslims to Christianity and related charges, his wife and Christians with close knowledge about his situation said.

Iranian Christians on Monday, March 1, were searching a Christian couple after they were detained by Iranian security forces for apparently leading an unauthorized house church, Worthy News and its news partner BosNewsLife learned.

An evangelical pastor and eight other Christians were behind bars in Iran Friday, February 26, after authorities closed their church as part of a new government crackdown on devoted Christians in the Islamic nation, rights investigators said.

An Iranian court forced a Christian convert with a Muslim background to sign a confession that she is "mentally unstable" and placed her under three months of house arrest in the city of Mashhad, 850 kilometers (530 miles) east of the capital Tehran, trial observers said.

A Christian mother jailed in Iran was apparently still prevented from meeting her family Tuesday, January 5, nearly three weeks after she was detained by police for allegedly contacting foreign Christian broadcasters.