Persecution of Christians in Iran: the treatment of Zaman Fadaei confirms the fact that converts to Christianity are particularly in the cross-hairs for persecution in that country, as Iranian authorities view them as a threat to the Islamic regime.
We continue to pray that the international community will take the persecution of Christians in Iran seriously and move to protect the embattled Christians and other religious minorities of that country. Please join us in pray for an end to the persecution of Christians of Iran, that the Christian communities of that country would be protected and strengthened, and that all Iranians would find by God’s grace the full expression in the Holy Orthodox Church of the faith that Iran’s Christians are holding fast to amid so much suffering.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of Iran, see here.
“Christian Convert Zaman Fadaei Receives 80 Lashes for Drinking Communion Wine,” Iran Human Rights Monitor, November 17, 2020:
A month after an Iranian Christian convert was lashed for drinking communion wine, another convert, Zaman (Saheb) Fadaei, was lashed 80 times on Sunday for the same reason.
The sentence was carried out on Sunday, November 15, 2020, at Shahid Moghadas Court next to Evin Prison.
Zaman Fadaei has been serving six years in prison recently reduced from ten years followed by two years in internal exile for organizing house churches and promoting ‘Zionist’ Christianity”.
He was sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking communion wine. He has curently been serving his sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison….
Zaman Fadaei, along with Yousef Nadarkhani, Youhan Omidi, and two other members of “Church of Iran” were arrested in May 2016 and were tried in June 2017 on charges of “acting against the national security through propagating house churches and promoting Zionist Christianity,” for which the four men were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
An initial appeal in May 2018 upheld the sentences, but a further review took place in May 2020 reduced the sentences against Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani and Zaman Fadaie to six years.
Last month, the clerical regime lashed Iranian Christian convert Mohammad Reza Omidi 80 times for drinking communion wine….
Many Iranian Christians are in prison in Iran for practicing their faith. Heavy bail bonds and exile sentences are additional pressures that the Iranian regime imposes on Christians….
The Iranian regime criminalizes conversion to Christianity, and severely restricts the faith practiced by Armenian and Assyrian Christians.
