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2025-02-20

• Arrested Iranian Convert Faces Deportation

  

  When threatened with imprisonment for his faith in 2013, a Christian convert named Mojtaba Ahmadi was forced to flee from Iran. Upon his arrival in neighbouring Türkiye, he applied for refugee status. However, despite the fact that he stayed more than a decade within the country, Mojtaba had never been interviewed about his case and, therefore, did not receive official protection as a refugee.

• Prisoners Released After Years of Detention

  

  Originally from Yemen, Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo was forced to flee to Egypt in 2014 after being subjected to violent attacks because of his conversion to Christianity. Then, in 2021, Abdulbaqi was arrested by Egyptian officials following an interview he did for a Christian television program addressing the topic of persecution in Yemen. Additionally, he was identified as a member of a Facebook group for those who had converted from Islam to Christianity. Nour Gerges, an Egyptian Coptic believer who also participated in the same Facebook group, was arrested at the same time.

• Two Pardoned Pastors Rearrested

  

  While Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh had been sentenced in 2017 to ten years' imprisonment because of his Christian ministry, he was suddenly pardoned and released in 2022. Similarly, Joseph Shahbazian, a house church leader who had likewise been sentenced to ten years in 2022, was released after just over a year following an appeal of his sentence. More information on Nasser's case is available here.