The U.S. State Department has classified Iran as a “country of particular concern” for “having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”
“Hakop Gochumyan,” Article 18, October 7, 2024:
Summary Armenian citizen Hakop Gochumyan is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Evin Prison for “engaging in deviant proselytising activity that contradicts the sacred law of Islam” through alleged membership and leadership of “a network of evangelical Christianity”. He was arrested alongside his wife, an Iranian-Armenian, during a visit to Tehran in August 2023, and has remained detained ever since. Case in full Hakop Gochumyan was visiting Iran with his wife Elisa Shahverdian, who is Iranian-Armenian, and their two children when they were arrested on 15 August 2023 in Pardis, just outside Tehran. The couple and their children, who were aged seven and 10, were having dinner at a friend’s home, when a dozen plainclothes agents of the Ministry of Intelligence raided the property. The agents confiscated personal belongings, including some Christian books, and then took the Gochumyan family back to Elisa’s grandmother’s house, where they had been staying for the summer holidays. The agents searched this property as well, before taking Hakop and Elisa away to Evin Prison, leaving their children in the custody of an aunt. Hakop and Elisa were then placed in solitary confinement in the notorious Ward 209 of Evin Prison, which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, and subjected to intense psychological torture and back-to-back interrogation sessions, each lasting between two to five hours. Neither Hakop nor Elisa were informed of any official charges against them, in violation of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Iran has ratified without reservation. After over two months in detention, Elisa was released on bail equivalent to $40,000 on 19 October 2023, after which she returned to Armenia to be reunited with her children, who had returned home a month earlier with a relative. Elisa’s bail had initially been set at $100,000, but her family protested that they could not afford the amount, and it was reduced by half. Speaking to Article18, Elisa said the intelligence agents had accused her of engaging in “illegal Christian activities”, but she said she didn’t know where the accusation stemmed from and that she and her husband had done nothing illegal, nor even engaged in any Christian activities during their visit to Iran….
