A Sharia court has sentenced three Christians to 80 lashes after “finding them guilty” of blasphemy for drinking holy communion wine.
the three Iranians – Yaser Mosibzadeh, Saheb Fadayee and Mohammed Reza Omidi – are due to be flogged in public after they were arrested at a house church gathering in Rasht in May.
The trio spent weeks in prison before they were finally released on bail, but they will now have to face the cruel and degrading punishment after they were guilty by Islamist judges.
The three men are Christian converts from Muslim backgrounds, and the sentence reflects the state’s hard-line refusal to recognise the right of Muslims to change their religion.
Iran stepped up its crackdown on Christian activists in 2015, and at least 108 Christians have been rounded up by police in the last year alone, with as many as ninety prisoners currently languishing in jail for their faith.
According to Christian charity Release International, many Christian prisoners have been beaten and abused, and some have been threatened with death.
