Two Iranian Christians have been given prison sentences for “spreading propaganda against the regime”, reports Middle East Concern.
Saheb Fadaei and Fatimeh Bakhteri, who belong to the non-Trinitarian “Church of Iran”, were sentenced to 18 and 12 months, respectively.
Middle East Concern noted that in the verdict it was written that “for Christians to claim that Jesus is Lord and that the Bible is their final authority can be perceived as an attack against Islam”.
Fadaei and Bakhteri, who will appeal, were among a group of Christians arrested in May 2017 in the northern city of Rasht.
Fadaei, who was also sentenced to two years’ internal exile, is already in prison, serving a 10-year sentence for propagating “house churches” and promoting “Zionist Christianity”, alongside his pastor, Youcef Nadarkhani, and two others, Yasser Mossayebzadeh and Mohammad Reza Omidi. Middle East Concern reports that he will not be forced to serve the additional sentence.