An Iranian-Armenian pastor has been acquitted and released from prison one year into his ten-year sentence.
Pastor Anooshavan Avedian was released on 24 September, just over a year after he was summoned to begin his ten-year jail sentence on 18 September 2023.
Anooshavan, 62, was initially arrested on 21 August 2020 for leading an unofficial church, also known as a “house church”, in Tehran.
Pastor Anooshavan Avedian was acquitted at an appeal hearing in Tehran on 24 September [Image credit: Article 18]
The “house church” was deemed to be “an illegal group with the aim of disrupting the security of the country through educational and propaganda activities contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam”.
Anooshavan had submitted multiple petitions for a retrial. The most recent, lodged in April 2024, was accepted. The decision to acquit Anooshavan was made by Branch 21 of the Appeal Court of Iran.
The “house church” pastored by Anooshavan was started following the forced closure of a Farsi (Persian)-speaking church in 2013. The closure had left the congregants with nowhere to meet together for worship.
Unlike the historic Armenian- and Assyrian-speaking Christian communities, Farsi-speaking Christians are converts from Islam – that is, apostates – and therefore punishable according to Islamic law.
Praise God for Anooshavan’s acquittal and release from prison. Ask that other Christians in Iran who are imprisoned for their faith in Jesus will also be released. Pray that the Lord will continue to watch over the Iranian believers, and that He will give them the courage and hope to persevere in their faith even though they are persecuted for it.
