by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Following unsuccessful appeals, on November 11 two Christian converts from Islam were summoned to prison in Iran to serve one-year sentences they received in February for “promoting Christianity,” Christian Persecution reports.
Sasan Khosravi and Habib Heydari are among seven believers who were all charged with “propagating against the Islamic Republic by promoting Christianity” in June 2020, Christian Persecution said. Although all the believers were charged with the same offenses, the sentences varied.
Sasan, Habib, and Sasan’s brother Sam were each sentenced to one year in prison; Pooriya Peyma was handed a 91-day sentence; and the wives of Sam, Sasan, and Pooriya’s were each fined, Christian Persecution said.
Sam and Sasan received additionally harsh sentencing: upon their release, they will be banned from their home city of Bushehr for two year, and neither will be allowed to work in their professions in the hospitality sector. Sam’s wife, Maryam, was also sentenced to being barred from working in any national institution, including the hospital she worked at for 20 years.
In a statement on its website about the ongoing persecution of believers by Iran’s Islamic regime, the rights organization US Open Doors said: “The Iranian government sees the conversion of Muslims to Christianity as an attempt by Western countries to undermine the Islamic rule of Iran. Persecution has remained extreme.”
Iran ranks eighth on the US Watch List 2021 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.