Prison Sentence Lengthened for Five Iranian Christian Detainees

ICC Note:
The sentences of five imprisoned Christian converts in Iran were lengthened two additional months for unknown reasons, Mohabat News reports.
8/2/2012 Iran (Mohabat News) – It is six months now that five Christian converts are being held in Adel-Abad prison in Shiraz. Security and judicial authorities are making efforts to raise and magnify unsubstantiated charges against these Christians in order to impose more pressure on them. By doing this, they are also seeking to intimidate and terrorize other Christian groups.
Reporters of Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, indicate that five Christian converts namely Mrs. Fariba Nazemian, Mojtaba Hosseini, Homayoun Shokouhi, Mohammad-Reza Partoei (Kourosh) and Vahid Hakkani were told in a court session that they will be held in prison for two more months without a decision being issued for them! It is not clear who was present in the court session, where it was held or whether the detainees were allowed to hire an attorney or not? What is clear, though, is that they will need to spend two more months behind bars with their fate unknown.
In the mentioned inquisition court session they were asked if they have changed! [Meaning if they have repented from Christianity and returned to Islam] The court authorities also insulted them and claimed that they have created a new sect for themselves which is not from the Gospel and is not Armenian or Assyrian!
Also, to maximize their unsubstantiated charges, the authorities claimed that these Christian detainees have burned a copy of the Quran in the home of one of their friends called Kourosh! It is obvious that this is a false claim brought up only to intimidate the detained Christian converts and to magnify their charges in court. They were also told to defend themselves against the charge of having political contacts with foreign countries!
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