Source: Open Doors, March 17, 2020<\/p>\n
\u201cRecent reports indicate that the COVID-19 virus has spread inside Iranian prisons,\u201d Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said in Geneva.<\/p>\n
The immediate release freed an estimated 70,000 prisoners, including six Christians. However at least 11 believers serving longer-term, security-related sentences will remain imprisoned. That includes Christians like Nasser-Navard Gol-tepeh who has been sentenced to 10 years for \u201ccrimes against national security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also known to be still in detention in Iran on charges related to the peaceful practice of their faith are nine Christian converts from the northern city of Rasht. Their five-year prison sentences were recently upheld, even though neither they nor their lawyers were permitted to attend the hearing. Five of the men are among the at least 11 Christians. They were arrested during raids on their homes and house churches.<\/p>\n
Christian activist Mary (Fatemeh) Mohammadi was among the prisoners recently granted temporary leave from Qarchak women\u2019s prison. In detention, she was severely tortured and beaten so badly that the bruises were still visible on her body three weeks later.<\/p>\n
\u00bb Read full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00bb An interesting development from another region: the mayor of Seoul is pressing charges against the church at the center of Korea\u2019s coronavirus outbreak<\/a> (Huffington Post with links to other sources).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Open Doors, March 17, 2020 \u201cRecent reports indicate that the COVID-19 virus has spread inside Iranian prisons,\u201d Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said in Geneva. The immediate release freed an estimated 70,000 prisoners, including six Christians. However at least 11 believers serving longer-term, security-related sentences will remain imprisoned. … Continue reading IRAN: 70,000 Prisoners Released, Many Christians Still Jailed<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9174,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173\/revisions\/9174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}