By Janelle P in Middle East
From World Watch Monitor
An Iranian pastor 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 alcohol in his prison cell.
Farshid Fathi was serving a six-year prison sentence – extended to seven years – for “action against the regime’s security, being in contact with foreign organizations, and religious propaganda.”
Due to be released in Dec. 2017, he was then told by prison officials in early July that he would be released this year – at that time they said on Dec. 10.
He was originally arrested on Dec. 26, 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 Jan. 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.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Seyyed Ali Khamenei had made a speech in October 2010 saying that house churches should be “dealt with.” A new wave of surveillance and arrests against Christians followed soon after, with leaders of house church groups, such as Farshid Fathi, especially singled out for longer detentions. Born into a Muslim family, Fathi became a Christian at the age of 17 and at the time of his arrest he was working full-time as a pastor and leader of house churches.
Story continues: https://www.opendoorsusa.org/newsroom/
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