Farshid Fathi was in solitary confinement for months before he was told that he could be free on $200,000 bail; with great difficulty, his family came up with the cash after selling his father-in-law’s home, but when Fathi was ready to to walk out the prison door, the chief interrogator from the Iranian public prosecutor’s office ordered him back for further questioning.
Christians in Iran have challenged news reports that the death penalty for Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani has been annulled pointing out that in reality the Supreme Court appears to have added a precondition requiring him to renounce his faith or face execution, according to an international Christian rights group.
Iran’s secretive supreme court has reportedly overturned a death sentence handed down to an evangelical pastor for leaving Islam, surprising trial observers who were earlier informed about an execution ruling.
An Iranian pastor, convicted of apostasy and sentenced to death, may have only hours or days to live, according to a US-based Christian ministry acquainted with the facts of his case.
The general director of comparative religious studies in Iran claimed the enemies of Islam donate approximately $50,000 a year to Iranian house churches that often have memberships of only 15-20 members.
Iran has released on bail a man who was jailed because he converted from Islam to Christianity, but several others remain detained because they are unable to pay for their freedom Iranian Christians said Monday, April 11.
Five Iranian house church Christians were behind bars Wednesday, March 15, after being sentenced to one year imprisonment on charges of “crimes against the Islamic order” and there were reports that Iranian authorities have been burning Bibles.
Iranian Christians requested prayers Sunday, January 16, amid a new wave of arrests of Christian converts, many of them former Muslims.
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan says an American church’s plan to burn Korans on September 11 could endanger U.S. troops and damage the overall war effort in that country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to meet every two weeks to continue U.S. backed direct negotiations for the creation of a Palestinian state within a year despite serious differences that remain between the two sides.
A well-known Iranian pastor faces execution after two judges agreed to make him “liable to capital punishment,” as part of a crackdown on the growing Protestant church movement in the Islamic nation, Worthy News and its parner agency BosNewsLife learned Tuesday, July 13.
Iran has acquitted “on all charges” two young women who were detained fourteen months ago “for their Christian faith and activities” and abandoning Islam, Iranian church officials confirmed Sunday, May 23.
An Iranian pastor jailed for 54 days on charges of “converting Muslims” to Christianity, spent Easter in freedom this weekend after he was temporary released on bail along with several other believers, Iranian Christians and rights investigators said.
A young Christian maid was raped and burned to death by the son of her Muslim employer in the industrial city of Sheikhupura, the second murder of a domestic servant in Pakistan’s Punjab province in less than two months, investigators confirmed Thursday April 1.
The detained Assyrian pastor of an evangelical church in Iran has been tortured and told he may be executed for converting Muslims to Christianity and related charges, his wife and Christians with close knowledge about his situation said.
Iranian Christians on Monday, March 1, were searching a Christian couple after they were detained by Iranian security forces for apparently leading an unauthorized house church, Worthy News and its news partner BosNewsLife learned.
Rights investigators said Wednesday, January 13, there has been “a surge ofattacks” against Christians since December, with deaths, detentions and destruction reported in the Arab world, Africa and Asia.
Two young Christian women who faced execution or at least life imprisonment in Iran for converting from Islam to Christianity were to be released as early as Tuesday, November 17, after international pressure and prayers, their representatives told Worthy News and its partner agency BosNewsLife.
A gathering of Christian leaders from across the Middle East that was to be held in Egypt next month has been postponed due to “security concerns,” organizers confirmed Saturday, November 14.
Iran’s government has ordered one of the country’s largest Protestant churches to halt Friday services, while a pastor remains detained for protesting plans to “impose the reading of the Koran” on Christian children, Worthy News monitored Monday, November 9.