Wednesday, October 04, 2006

WLC - Iran: House Church Leaders Arrested

"On Tuesday 26 September, secret police raided the home of Iranian house-church leaders Reza Montazami (35) and his wife Fereshteh Dibaj (28) confiscating their computers, Christian literature and
other items. Compass Direct (CD) reports: 'Montazami and his wife lead an independent house-church in Mashhad, the only known remnant of two active Protestant Christian congregations worshipping in the
city before Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. Both churches were closed by government order in the 1980s. Then in December 1990, the government executed a Mashhad pastor, the Rev Hussein Soodmand. A former Muslim who had become a Christian 24 years earlier, Soodmand refused to recant his faith after four months under extreme physical and psychological mistreatment in prison.'

Before Reza Montazami and his wife Fereshteh Dibaj were taken away Montazami quickly phoned his mother who came and took charge of their six-year-old daughter, Christine. The police told Montazami's
mother that Reza and Fereshteh were being taken to a certain police station. However they were actually delivered to a local intelligence branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The family has been told the couple will soon appear before a Revolutionary Court. The nature of the charge against them is as yet unknown. For the full story and a picture see <
http://www.compassdirect.org/>. "

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