Iran: Farshid Fathi is released

World Watch Monitor reports that Iranian evangelical pastor Farshid Fathi has been released early from prison, just six months after he failed to appeal a sentence to an extra year in jail and 74 lashes for allegedly possessing two litres of alcohol in his prison cell.

He was serving a six-year prison sentence – extended to seven years – for “action against the regime’s security, being in contact with foreign organisations, and religious propaganda”. Due to be released in December 2017, he was then told by prison officials in early July that he would be released this year – at that time they said on 10 December.

He was originally arrested on 26 December 2010 at the same time as around 60 other Christians, many belonging to house churches in Tehran and other cities. Most of those have now been released.

The governor of Tehran, Morteza Tamadon, on 4 January, 2011 described the detained Christians as “extremists” who “penetrate the body of Islam like corrupt and deviant people”. He added that they were trying to establish “an extreme form of Christianity like the Taliban and Wahhabis in Islam”.

Fathi, who is a 35-year-old father of two, was imprisoned without trial in Evin prison. After 15 months of uncertainty, he was tried in January 2012. Details of his court trial have not been published.

Other News Items

Current Status of Persecuted Christians in Nigeria – ACN Bishops Event March 2025

Bishops from Nigeria ask the UK Parliament to consider the underlying drivers for the mass displacement of over 3 million people who wish to return to their lands to farm and to live in peace.

Mahvesh Sabet Release

Film Event with the APPG North Korea

Humanitarian Concerns in Parachinar: APPG FoRB Meeting Highlights

Business Question on Prisoners of Conscience – Jim Shannon

Jim Shannon MP asked the following Business Question on 13 Feb 2025: "I wish to highlight the case of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Nigerian Sufi musician sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2020. in March 2020, authorities arrested Sharif-Aminu, a musician and follower of the Sufi islamic beliefs, after a series of audio messages circulated via WhatsApp were made public of him for sharing allegedly “blasphemous” song lyrics on WhatsApp about .....

“Human Rights are not a privilege conferred by government.  They are every human beings entitlement by virtue of their humanity”

– Mother Teresa –