Demanding heavy bail and putting pressure on the families of Christian prisoners
Judges of the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunals of Iran have imposed strange bail on the temporary release of a number of Christians, which in practice is extorted from Christian detainees and their families!
In recent months, the judges of the Revolutionary Courts have issued the heaviest possible sentences for a number of Christians, and at the same time set unbelievable and strange bails for their temporary release, which ranged from 500 million Tomans ($23,000) to three billion Tomans ($137,000)! It is not clear what the basis for determining this amount of bail was for the defendants, but it is clear that the issue is nothing but increasing pressure on them.
“Joseph Shahbazian”, an activist of house churches and a former member of the Jamaat Rabbani ( Assemblies of God) Church in Tehran, was released on bail of 2 billion Tomans ($91,000) on Saturday, August 22, 2020, after being detained for about two months.
In recent weeks, it was announced that the judge of the Revolutionary Court had set a bail of three billion Tomans ($137,000) for his temporary release, but his family was unable to provide this amount, and finally the court reduced the bail to two billion tomans ($91,000).
Determining astronomical bail is part of the Islamic Republic’s judiciary pressure on Christians. The amount of bail, for these people who are charged with preaching Christianity and the Bible, is even heavier than for embezzlers and corrupt managers and nobles who have criminal records.
It is not clear that in the courts of the Islamic Republic, the amount of bail is determined by law or arbitrarily based on the wishes and emotions of judges, most of whom are infected with all kinds of corruption!
Religious minority rights activists say the Islamic Republic’s judiciary is “criminalizing” activities “not recognized in criminal law” through filing and security charges. This practice has led to the “extortion of the courts from Christians.”
Prolonged imprisonment and deportation, heavy astronomical bail, frequent cancellations of court hearings, and lengthy trials and security charges including espionage are all part of the psychological pressure on Iranian Christians.
In the last couple of years, new cases of persecution of Christians have been added, including forced confessions and “repentance letter”!
In such circumstances, it is clear that the Islamic Republic deals specifically with groups that evangelize and promote Christianity, and those cases are placed on the agenda of the judiciary every year.
However, “Ara Shaverdian“, the representative of the northern Armenians in the Islamic parliament of Iran says that despite the atmosphere, religious minorities in Iran live without any restrictions and with complete freedom!
Religious minorities in Iran have always been under systematic discrimination and pressure from the security institutions of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
In late June of this year, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unveiled the US Annual Report on Religious Freedom in the World, 33 pages of which are devoted to the state of religious freedom in Iran; The report, which states that in the year 2019 the Islamic Republic continued to persecute, interrogate and detain Baha’is, non-Armenian Christians, especially those who have converted to Christianity (Christian converts), Sunnis, and other religious minorities.
Despite the billions of Tomans spent on Islamic propaganda, the people are fleeing from the clerics, especially the Islamists led by Khamenei in Iran, and they are looking for an intellectual and spiritual base that is not tainted with politics.