Summoning two Christians to Evin court

According to the HRANA news agency, the news organ of the Iranian Association of Human Rights Activists, Behnam Akhlaghi and Babak Hosseinzadeh, were summoned to the Evin court in a statement.

Babak Hosseinzadeh and Behnam Akhlaghi were arrested on 2017, during a house church meeting in Rasht. Mr. Akhlaghi's home was searched by officers after his arrest. According to an informed source, security forces broke into Mr. Akhlaghi's home during a search and damaged Christian-related symbols.

On 2018, the first hearing of the charges against these citizens was held in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh. During this meeting, the bail of these citizens increased to one billion and five hundred million tomans, and they were arrested due to their inability to provide bail and transferred to Ward 4 of Evin Prison.

They were sentenced to five years in prison on charges of "acting against the security of the country by forming a house church and propagating evangelical Christianity and Zionism." This verdict was finally confirmed to them in June 2020 by Branch 36 of the Tehran Court of Appeals, presided over by Judge Seyed Ahmad Zargar.

Babak Hosseinzadeh and Behnam Akhlaghi were transferred to prison after 12 days in custody of a security institution and were held in this prison for 11 days without observing the principle of separation of crimes. Finally, on March 18, 2017, they were released on bail of 150 million Tomans, temporarily released until the end of the proceedings.

The hearing of the charges against these citizens was held in March of this year in Branch 34 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran. Behnam Akhlaghi and Babak Hosseinzadeh, along with a number of other Christian believers, were released from Evin Prison on bail in December this year.

Last week, Behnam Akhlaghi and Babak Hosseinzadeh were summoned to the Evin court to respond to new charges of propagating evangelical Christianity. Human rights groups say the summons would reopen previous cases and spark new charges, and the two Christian believers could face up to several years in prison.

 

_{Source and Credit: Harana news}