Acquitted on appeal, Armenian-Iranian pastor released after a year in Iranian Jail

Anooshavan Avedian, 62, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for leading a house church. An appeal court dropped the charges and ordered his release. Advocacy group is pleased about the turn of events but calls for the victim to be “compensated for all he has endured”. At least 21 Christians are still in an Iranian prison because of their faith.

Tehran (AsiaNews) – Iranian authorities have released a 62-year-old Armenian-Iranian pastor, Rev Anooshavan Avedian, from Tehran’s Evin prison, just over a year after he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for leading a house church. He was acquitted on all charges.

According to Article18, a non-profit organizations dedicated to documenting religious repression in Iran, especially against Christians, the Christian clergyman left his cell this week, after the court accepted his appeal against the verdict of a lower court.

All the charges were dropped at the hearing last Tuesday at Branch 21 of the Appeal Court of Tehran, leading to his release.

Anooshavan spent just over a year in prison, starting his sentence on the same day that another Armenian-Iranian pastor, Rev Joseph Shahbazian, was released after purging a ten-year prison sentence.

“For Anooshavan to have spent even one day in prison was unjust, especially now that he has been found to have committed no crime,” Borji said. For this reason, “We hope that he will be fully compensated for all that he has endured.”

Last year, the UN Human Rights Committee called on Iran to “immediately release those imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief”, and ensure they are provided with “adequate compensation”.

In addition to Anooshavan, at least 21 other Christians are currently serving prison sentences related to their faith, about a dozen in Evin.

One of them is Hakop Gochumyan, who was sentenced to 10 years for alleged “deviant proselytising”. The Armenian national accompanied Anooshavan to the prison gates when the latter was released.

At the time of the Armenian-Iranian clergyman’s trial, two members of the same house church were also convicted. Unlike the pastor, Abbas Soori, 45, and Maryam Mohammadi, 46, both converts, were immediately released without serving their prison sentences.

For Anooshavan, Maryam and Abbas, everything began in August 2020, when they were arrested for the first time, but their case went nowhere for a long time.

At least 30 intelligence agents raided the house church in Narmak, northeast of the capital. About 18 people were present, praying and reading the scripture.

During the operation, copies of the Bible, personal effects, mobile phones, and other computer equipment were seized. Those detained were forced to provide passwords to their smartphones and social media accounts.

They spent time between the time of their arrest and sentencing in the notorious Evin prison, on the outskirts of Tehran, where they were subjected to interrogations, psychological torture and abuse.

In the recent past, Iranian authorities have arrested thousands of Christians from house churches with hundreds convicted on charges of “acting against national security”.

This belies statements by the Iranian government and Iranian diplomatic missions claiming that Christians “continue to enjoy the religious freedom to carry out their activities, worship in their churches and devote themselves to their programmes in accordance with the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”