Release International

Several Christians were arrested on the same day in Tehran as part of what appears to be a nationwide crackdown on the church.

News agency Compass Direct names three Christians who were seized from their homes in the Iranian capital on January 21 – but quotes an unnamed source as saying 'up to 50 people' have been arrested across the country in recent months.

Hakim Khachikian, an Armenian Christian who attends a house church in Tehran, was arrested first. Half-an-hour later, husband and wife Jamal Ghalishorani and Nadereh Jamali were detained. No details of the charges against them have been released.

There is particular concern for Jamal and Nadereh, both of whom have a Muslim background. The Iranian parliament approved a new penal code imposing the death penalty for 'apostates' – people who leave Islam for another religion – last September (7x7, October 14, 2008).

The code has still to be ratified by the Guardian Council, a panel of senior theologians and jurists who can veto any bill deemed to flout Islamic law or Iran's constitution. Under the proposed penal code, male 'apostates' would be executed: women would be jailed for life.

Compass Direct sources say that the current wave of persecution against Christians – and other non-Muslims including followers of the Baha'i faith – appears to be intensifying.

(Sources: Compass Direct, Mission Network News)

* Pray for all Christians in custody in Iran. Ask God specifically to comfort Jamal and Nadereh's daughter (13) and Khachikian's two children, aged 11 and 16.
* Pray that Iran's Guardian Council will rule against the proposed apostasy bill.

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