Pastor Released from Prison

(Compass) – Iranian pastor Khosroo Yusefi was released from prison in northern Iran yesterday, six weeks after he was arrested with his wife and children in Chalous, a city along the Caspian Sea coast. Yusefi and another Christian believer are the last of several dozen evangelical Christians arrested throughout May in the province of Mazanderan and later freed by police officials. Yusefi’s wife Nasrin and the couple’s two teenage children were released after a week in detention. In his late 40s, Yusefi converted to Christianity from the Baha’i religion nearly 20 years ago and gives pastoral supervision to several unregistered Assemblies of God house churches in the Caspian region. One source reported that the jailed Christians were ordered to stop meeting for worship and to “stop talking about Jesus.” The theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran forbids proselytizing among Muslims.