Iran

Iran’s Islamic rulers have jailed more Christians amid a brutal crackdown on nationwide protests that a network of Iranian doctors says has killed up to 18,000 people.

Five Iranian Christians have been sentenced to a combined 55 years in prison amid a broader crackdown on devout Christian believers in Iran, a strict Islamic nation, sources told Worthy News Thursday.

Iran has detained dozens of Christians on charges of espionage and “anti-security activities” for Israel, drawing condemnation from rights groups who call the move part of a broader crackdown on the country’s tiny Christian minority.

An evangelical pastor who spent two years under house arrest in Iran for his Christian faith has urged U.S. President Donald J. Trump to halt the deportation of Iranian Christians, warning they could face imprisonment or even execution for abandoning Islam.

Iranian Christian convert Mehran Shamlooei was arrested on July 3 upon arrival at Mashhad International Airport after being deported from Turkey, where he had sought refuge to avoid serving a harsh prison sentence handed down for his faith.

Two men who abandoned Islam and turned to faith in Christ have been forced to flee Iran, where they were sentenced to 12 years in prison each on charges linked to possessing “multiple copies of the Bible,” Christians told Worthy News.

Friends of a detained Christian woman in Tehran urged fellow believers to pray for her on Wednesday after Iran’s authorities demanded $135,000 in local currency for her release.

There was concern Friday about the detained wife of Pastor Joseph Shahbazian, who was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for his Christian work in Iran.

Christians have urged prayers for four detained Christians in Iran, including frail Pastor Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who was recently detained again after he already served 5 years in prison for activities linked to his faith in Christ.

An Iranian court has sentenced a Christian woman pregnant with her first child to 16 years imprisonment while two other believers also received lengthy jail terms for activities related to the Christian faith, trial observers confirmed Wednesday.

A new annual report by the Article 18 Iranian persecution watchdog a dramatic increase in the number and length of prison terms handed to Christians in the Islamic Republic of Iran last year compared to 2023.

A leader of the Church of Iran, one of the Islamic Republic’s largest evangelical house church movements, was free Monday after being released from Minab prison in Hormozgan province in southern Iran, Christians told Worthy News.

Three Iranian Christians, who were previously known as Muslims, have been released after ten days in detention just weeks after another Christian was freed after years in jail for his faith, Christians say.

A new study shows that persecuted Iranian Christians seeking asylum in the former Soviet state of Georgia are unfairly vulnerable to deportation as Georgian authorities routinely deny their claims, Article 18 reports.

Twelve Christian converts in Iran are facing the possibility of torture and lengthy prison terms after being charged with “propagating a religion contrary to Islam” and “collaborating with foreign governments,” Article 18 reports.

An Iranian Christian man has been released from Iran’s notoriously harsh Evin prison after serving nearly half of the ten-year sentence he received for starting an illegal evangelical group, Church in Chains (CIC) reports. Ruled by an authoritarian extremist Islamic regime, Iran ranks 9 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

A young woman who has been jailed in Iran after abandoning Islam and turning to faith in Christ has been denied requested psychological care despite suffering mental difficulties linked to her treatment in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, Christians say.

Christians in Iran are not expecting the country’s new president to improve the harsh persecution they face at the hands of the Iranian Islamic extremist regime, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

A court of appeals in Iran has sentenced a Christian Armenian man to 10 years imprisonment for alleged “proselytizing,” Barnabas Aid reports.