Two Christians have been sentenced to five years each in prison for “acting against national security by gathering and collusion”.

Ebrahim Firouzi (left) and Sevada Aghasar were sentenced today at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of Karaj, chaired by Judge Mohammad Nasser Moghiseh.

Ebrahim is a Christian convert and prisoner of conscience, who has been arrested many times for his evangelism and has already spent a year in prison. 

On 13 July 2013, he was sentenced to a year in prison and two years in exile in the far-southeastern city of Sarbaz, in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, for “propaganda against the regime by establishing and organising Christian gatherings” and “having contacts with anti-revolutionary networks outside Iran”.

However, on the completion of his jail sentence in January, prison authorities refused to release him until a new court order was issued.

Sevada, an Armenian Christian living in Tehran, was arrested alongside Ebrahim on 25 August 2013, at the workplace of another friend, Masoud Mirza’i, who was also arrested but then released.

Sevada spent more than six months in Ward 350 of Evin Prison before his release on bail. He will now return to Evin Prison to begin his sentence. Ebrahim will remain in Rajaei Shahr Prison.