- Joined
- Mar 11, 2013
- Messages
- 13,517
- Points
- 113
Milan (AsiaNews) – A combined total of more than 250 years in prison in 2024 alone. An increase of about six times from the previous year, confirming a repressive framework that has been progressively escalating over the past five years against the minority. The climate of denominationally motivated persecution, or at least violations of the religious freedom of Christians taking place in the Islamic Republic is confirmed by data from a report (click here to read it) relaunched by Article18, a website specializing in documenting abuses and limitations in the area of worship. The study, released these days, was conducted with the collaboration of other leading personal freedoms NGOs including Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and Middle East Concern and paints a picture that is cause for “deep alarm.”
Escalation of condemnations
The activist groups’ report confirms that there is a “sharp regression ‘ in religious freedom in Iran, in line with the authorities’ escalating crackdown linked to the protests that erupted following the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police. A finding also emerged in reports by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which call for reclassifying the Islamic Republic as a “nation of particular concern (Cpc)” for its “systematic and egregious violations.”
In the year just ended at least 96 Christians, mostly converts from Islam in a nation with a large Shiite Muslim majority, were sentenced to a total of 263 years in prison, compared to 22 Christians sentenced to a total of 43.5 years in 2023. According to the report’s authors, the reason for the substantial increase is related in part to the “sharp spike in arrests in the second half of 2023, which required judicial treatment” in the months following when the sentencing verdicts came in.
Adding to this, however, is the significant increase in individual sentences to long prison terms, with five Christians receiving sentences of at least 10 years in jail and, in at least one case, up to 15 years. In all of these cases documented in the report titled “The Tip of the Iceberg” (to draw attention to the fact that many other cases go unreported) there were charges related to the faith practiced or religious activities related to worship….
Escalation of condemnations
The activist groups’ report confirms that there is a “sharp regression ‘ in religious freedom in Iran, in line with the authorities’ escalating crackdown linked to the protests that erupted following the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police. A finding also emerged in reports by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which call for reclassifying the Islamic Republic as a “nation of particular concern (Cpc)” for its “systematic and egregious violations.”
In the year just ended at least 96 Christians, mostly converts from Islam in a nation with a large Shiite Muslim majority, were sentenced to a total of 263 years in prison, compared to 22 Christians sentenced to a total of 43.5 years in 2023. According to the report’s authors, the reason for the substantial increase is related in part to the “sharp spike in arrests in the second half of 2023, which required judicial treatment” in the months following when the sentencing verdicts came in.
Adding to this, however, is the significant increase in individual sentences to long prison terms, with five Christians receiving sentences of at least 10 years in jail and, in at least one case, up to 15 years. In all of these cases documented in the report titled “The Tip of the Iceberg” (to draw attention to the fact that many other cases go unreported) there were charges related to the faith practiced or religious activities related to worship….
