Iranian Authorities’
Refuse to Allow Christian Convert Ebrahim Firoozi to See Dying Mother
دادگاه با ملاقات و خداحافظی زندانی
عقیدتی با مادرش موافقت نکرد
DECEMBER 7, 2018
While battling breast cancer for the past year, Kobra Kamrani’s
only wish was to see her son Ebrahim Firoozi, a Christian convert who was
imprisoned in Iran for alleged missionary activities.
She was too ill to make the trip to the prison but the authorities
refused to grant Firoozi temporary leave for a short visit, leaving his mother
to die on December 3, 2018, without being able to say goodbye, a source close
to the family told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
Since 2014, Firoozi has been serving a five-year prison sentence
for the charge of “creating a group with the intention of disturbing national
security” for allegedly engaging in missionary activities.
When he was first arrested in January 2010, interrogators offered
Firoozi freedom if he declared himself a Muslim. He refused and was convicted
of “propaganda against the state” for converting to Christianity and allegedly
promoting the faith and sentenced to five months in prison with an additional
five-month suspended prison sentence.
Firoozi was freed on June 8, 2011, but was arrested again in March
2012 for allegedly “attempting to create a website teaching about Christianity”
and was again charged with “propaganda against the state.”
For this act, he was sentenced to one year in prison and two years
in exile by Judge Hassan Babaee of the Revolutionary Court in Robat Karim, 16
miles southwest of Tehran. The decision was upheld on appeal.
