02 April 2025 :
April 1, 2025 - IRAN. Mansour and Mahmoud Mardani, two Christian convert brothers, have been sentenced by the Revolutionary Court of Lenjan County in Isfahan province, to four years in prison each, along with fines and additional punishments.
According to HRANA, the verdict was issued on January 5, 2025, by Judge Mohammad Ali Abbasi and was recently communicated to the two converts. Each was sentenced to four years in prison, a fine of 150 million tomans, and a five-year deprivation of social rights on charges of “propaganda against the regime through promoting Christianity.”
In addition, the brothers were banned from residing in Isfahan Province and the city of Fooladshahr, and sentenced to two years of exile in Ardal County, located in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province.
Mansour and Mahmoud Mardani were first arrested on December 22, 2021, during a Christmas celebration at a house church in Fooladshahr, Isfahan, and were later released on bail.
Notably, while Christianity is officially recognized as a minority religion in Iran, security agencies view the conversion of Muslims to Christianity as a highly sensitive matter and respond with severe crackdowns on those involved in religious activism.
The persecution of Christian converts in Iran persists despite Article 18 of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which affirm every individual’s right to freedom of religion, including the right to change their faith and to practice it openly or privately, alone or in community with others.
