Ten Christians were arrested in Iran when they were attending the Christmas Day service in the city of Shiraz in southern Iran.
The group of Iranian Christians had gathered together last Friday, December 25, to celebrate Christmas when plain-clothes agents of the Iranian regime’s notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) raided the in-house church.
The detained members of the church have been identified as: Ahmad Golshani-Nia, Moussa Sari-Pour, Mohammad-Reza Soltanian, Mohsen Javadi, Mahmoud Salehi, Elaheh Izadi, Sina Namvar, Alireza Ali-Qanbari, Reza Mohammadi and Khalil.
Just two days before the group arrest, Maysam Hojjati, a Christian convert from Islam, was beaten and dragged off into the snow from his home in Isfahan, south of Tehran. His Bible, cell phones, computers, and other personal items were confiscated. A week after he was arrested, his family is still waiting for news about Hojjati from the officials.
Also American Pastor and former Iranian citizen Saeed Abedini is among several other pastors imprisoned in Iran. Abedini was jailed three years ago, when he was in Iran, supervising an orphanage.
Andy Dipper of Christian Solidarity Worldwide said: We remain deeply concerned at the treatment of Christians in Iran, who suffer harassment, mistreatment and imprisonment simply for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief by gathering to worship peacefully, particularly during the Christmas season.
