'Zionist' Christian in Iran receives extension on prison sentence

Thursday, March 12, 2020

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) - 'Evangelical Zionist Christianity' is the charge laid against a Christian convert in Iran whose prison sentence the government recently extended.

Ismaeil Maghrebinejad, who became a Christian 40 years ago, has been repeatedly "harassed" for his conversion by the government over the years, according to Open Doors USA, finally receiving charges in January for "propaganda against the Islamic Republic" and "apostasy" meriting three years in prison.

In February, a hearing saw Maghrebinejad's sentence extended by two years for "membership of a group hostile to the regime," as the government of Iran tends to see Christians outside of Catholicism or Orthodoxy as foreign agents of Israel or the US.

Iran is number nine on Open Doors USA's World Watch List for the persecution of Christians.