During a final appeal hearing on 15 January in Tehran, Iranian Christians Saheb Fadaie and Fatemeh Bakhteri were asked by presiding judges Hassan Babaee and Ahmad Zargar to renounce their faith, but refused to do so.
In September 2018, Mr Fadaie and Ms Bakhteri were sentenced to 18 and 12 months in prison respectively. Mr Fadaie also received an additional two years in internal exile in Nehbandan, a remote area close to the border with Afghanistan. Local sources reported that the verdict confirming the sentences claimed that discussions of Christian doctrine held in house churches were considered attacks on Islam.
‘Zionist Christianity’
Saheb Fadaie was transported to court from Evin prison, where he is currently serving a ten-year sentence. He was arrested along with fellow Church of Iran members, Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, Mohammadreza Omidi and Yasser Mossayebzadeh, in May 2016, during a series of raids by security agents on Christian homes in the city of Rasht. In July 2017, all four received ten-year sentences ‘for acting against national security’ by ‘promoting Zionist Christianity’, and in May 2018, Judge Babee and Judge Zargar upheld these sentences.
