Although there has been no explanation offered by the Iranian Government's security sources, it is likely that these 10 members of a house-church were arrested because of their Christian beliefs and participation in church gatherings, which is in line with the recent wave of repressive actions taken by the government against Iranian Christians.

According to the Iranian Christian News Agency ( Mohabat News ), Security forces in the final days of the Iranian of year 1389, 26 Esfand (17 March 2011) at 5 PM, invaded a house in the city of Kermanshah and arrested 10 believers. (City of Kermanshah is located in western part of Iran near Iraqi border and is 590 KM away from Tehran).

The report says: the house was a location for new believers to get together for praise and worship and the agents of Intelligence Ministry used extremely excessive force to arrest them, they were moved with handcuffs to an unknown location.

The reason believers worship in private homes is the theocratic government of Iran does not allow Farsi speaking Christians to have a church building as place of worship.

Security forces also searched the home and collected Christian painting, Bibles, DVDs, a Computer case and also their personal identifications. We have also been informed that 7 of the detainees after long hours of interrogation were released on March 18 after they were pictured and finger printed, and they also had to sign a paper to never participate in those events again.
The names of those who still remain in custody are as follows: " Meghdad Babakarami "(AKA Paul), a couple by the names of " Nahid Shirazi " and " Masoud Delijani ", which as of yet there is not report regarding their whereabouts and wellbeing.

An informed source reports that the families of these detainees have, on several occasions, attempted to contact the judicial authorities but have not been able to receive any response. Some government related organizations have refused to disclose any information and have claimed that there is no information available regarding these individuals.

Although there has been no explanation offered by the Iranian Government's security sources, it is likely that these 10 members of a house-church were arrested because of their Christian beliefs and participation in church gatherings, which is in line with the recent wave of repressive actions taken by the government against Iranian Christians.

Prior to this event, an elderly Christian minister, Rev Wilson Issavi, was arrested by government security agents in the city of Kermanshah on February 2, 2010 and was released temporarily, after 54 days in detention, from the Dastgerd prison in Isfahan after posting a bail. He is still waiting to be summoned to the revolutionary court to deal with the charges and accusations that have been brought against him.

The Assyrian Pentecostal Church of Kermanshah is one of the three churches in Iran that, due to the deliberate cooperation of the Assyrian member of Iranian Parliament with the Islamic government was accused of proselytization of the Farsi-speaking Iranians, was closed by the government security forces on January 2, 2010.

Mohabat News