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| Pastor Behnam Irani |
In July, prison officials reportedly sent him to a military hospital for treatment when he became unconscious after vomiting blood from a chronic ulcer.
We have now
learned that the "military hospital" was only a first-aid area where
he was treated, quickly returned to his cell, and has since been denied further
medical treatment.
Pastor Behnam was first arrested in Dec 2006, tried for
crimes against national security, and released in Jan 2007. He was then
re-arrested, tried, and sentenced to 5 years in prison but was never called to
serve the sentence.
On April 14, 2010, Ministry of Intelligence and National
Security (MOIS) officers raided Irani’s house church, assaulted, and arrested
him.
Despite being released on bail in June 2010, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against national security in Jan 2011 and sentenced to one year in prison. After voluntarily surrendering to authorities on May 31, 2011, to begin his sentence, he received a letter in October stating that he must now also serve the previous 5-year sentence.
Despite being released on bail in June 2010, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against national security in Jan 2011 and sentenced to one year in prison. After voluntarily surrendering to authorities on May 31, 2011, to begin his sentence, he received a letter in October stating that he must now also serve the previous 5-year sentence.
During the first few months
of his imprisonment, the pastor was held incommunicado in a small cell, where
guards repeatedly awakened him from sleep to psychologically torture him. Later
he was moved into a cramped room where inmates could not lie down to sleep.
Since being transferred to his current cell, Pastor Irani has been beaten
regularly by cell mates and prison authorities. As a result of injuries
sustained during these assaults, he has difficulty walking and with vision. His
health has further deteriorated under death threats.
Since Feb 2012 he has
suffered with the chronic bleeding ulcer, fueling growing concerns about how
long he can live under such conditions. Behnam Irani, now 41, became a
Christian in 1992 and a pastor in the evangelical Church of Iran in 2002. Pray
for him, his wife and two children.
Elsewhere
in Iran, two believers were released last week while a pastor’s sentence was
upheld.
House church leader Noorollah Qabitizse, 48, had served 19 months after
being arrested with ten others in a Christmas Eve celebration at his home in
2010. In prison, authorities interrogated and mentally abused Qabitizse, trying
to force him to denounce his faith. Authorities later discovered a Bible study
he led among inmates and transferred him to another prison as punishment.
The
second Christian was released after 8 months in prison which included 105 days
in solitary confinement. Ehsan Behrouz, 24, a management student at the
University of Mashhad, was arrested Oct 2011. He may be barred from further
education, a common punishment for Christian students.
Third, Pastor Farshid Fathi’s 6-year prison sentence was upheld on
appeal. He has already served 18 months. Farshid was
arrested in Dec 2010 for his Christian work, convicted of being the “chief
agent of foreign organizations” in Iran and of administrating funds for foreign
organizations. Farshid has become a shining beacon for Christ in the notorious
Evin prison. An Iranian Ayatollah’s son has commented on Farshid in a YouTube video, remarking how beloved Farshid is amongst the inmates. Farshid has a wife
and two girls. Pray that these testimonies of faith in Christ will
encourage other believers in Iran to persevere for the Gospel.
Sources: VOM,
CSW, Present Truth
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