Ebrahim Firouzi Arrested For His Faith In Iran

The source of this report is Mohabat News. Links are included to learn more about various points that are made in this article. Persecution is still taking place and is increasing steadily in Iran. The world government’s spoke out and Iran listened in the case of Youcef Nadarkhani, but it appears the world is growing tired of the stories of Christian persecution. God never forgets His children, so please, remember these persecuted Iranian Christians in prayer.

Mohabat News – As we approach the end of Persian year 1391, we see a wave of attacks and anti-Christian statements from senior religious authorities of the Islamic regime. Following that, government supported media played a key role in provoking security authorities against Christians. Above all was the security and judicial authorities’ crack down on newly converted Christians. We have observed a more organized crackdown by these authorities in the past year. Increasing arrests and pressure on those who converted from Islam to Christianity, especially newly converted ones is only a small part of the Islamic regime’s plan to suppress dissidents.

Ebrahim Firouzi who is 28 years old, is a Christian convert. He disappeared and his family and friends did not know where he was or what had happened to him for days. His family’s concern grew when they could not find him after contacting all his friends and not seeing him at his workplace. All they could find out was that he had been arrested by some plain-clothes officers on his way to work.

According to Mohabat News correspondents, Ebrahim Firouzi was arrested by some plain-clothes security authorities on March 7, in the final days of the Persian year.

He resides in Robat-Karim, 20 KM south-west of Tehran. This is the same town where Sattar Beheshti, a laborer and blogger, was arrested by Iranian cyber-police and eventually tortured to death in prison.

After visiting numerous police stations, hospitals and other placing where they thought there was a possibility to find him, Firouzi’s family found out that he had been arrested by security authorities. They eventually did find him and his father was able to have a short visit with him at the court of Robat-Karim. His father saw him in prison clothes with his hair shaved.

– Reasons for Ebrahim Firouzi’s Arrest

After asking security authorities many times, Mr. Firouzi’s family was not told why he had been arrested. However, an authority in the Robat-Karim court told them informally that his arrest was related to the arrest of a number of Christians at Christmas 2012. They were referring to last Christmas when 50 Christian converts were arrested temporarily by plain-clothes security authorities. Pastor Vruir Avanessian, an Iranian-Armenian Christian, was arrested in the same incident. The 60-year-old pastor was conditionally released after 15 days due to his health problems. A property title deed valued more than 150 million Tomans (approximately 50,000 USD) was submitted for his release. He was conditionally released from Evin prison on January 10, 2013.

An authority told Mr. Firouzi’s father that his son could be released on a 50 million Tomans bail. However, because of his family’s inability to provide the requested bail, he remains in prison. The latest reports indicate that Mr. Firouzi has been transferred to the notorious Evin prison in Tehran.

This is the second time he has been arrested and this time he was arrested near Persian New Year. Earlier,he had been arrested on January 11, 2011, held under arrest for 10 months and eventually released conditionally. He had been arrested as part a crackdown on Christians in which over 60 Christian converts were arrested in Tehran and other cities. Among them was Farshid Fathi, who was later sentenced to six years in prison. He is currently serving his sentence in Evin prison.

At that time, Firouzi’s case was opened at branch 102 of the Revolutionary Court of Robat-Karim for propagating against the regime, desecrating Islamic holy figures, and for acting against national security. The court condemned him according to article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code and sentenced him to 10 months in prison. It is also worth mentioning that when he was transferred to the police station of Robat-Karim to be sent to the court, a police officer beat him. Also, because he was not able to afford a lawyer, he was tried without a lawyer defending him.

According to the court’s ruling, as Article 25 of the Islamic Penal Code suggests, the time he had already spent in prison was taken into account and his sentence was changed to a three year suspended sentence, meaning he will be released but in case of committing anything against the law, he will have to serve the three year sentence first and then be judged for the new crime.