At least a dozen Christians in Iran were reportedly arrested, some of whom were allegedly beaten, by Revolutionary Guard intelligence officers last week in three cities, according to a human rights monitoring group.
Article 18, a London-based nonprofit that promotes religious freedom and tolerance for Christians in Iran, has reported on the arrests of Christians in three operations in the cities of Tehran, Karaj and Malayer that took place on June 30 and July 1.
Along with the 12 Christians who were arrested, dozens of other Christians were forced to provide their contact details for future questioning, the organization noted.
According to Article 18, the first arrests occurred around 8 p.m. last Tuesday in Tehran’s Yaftabad district when 10 intelligence officers raided the home of a Christian convert where 30 Christians were gathered.
The agents reportedly were polite at first when they were video recording the incident. But after the cameras were off, the Christians were said to have been mistreated.
The agents read out a list of names that were written on an arrest warrant.
Included on that reported list were Joseph Shahbazian, an Armenian-Iranian Christian, and five Christian converts named Reza, Salar, Sonya, Mina and Maryam, who were present at the gathering.
The six of them were reportedly handcuffed, blindfolded and transported. The families were not immediately told where their loved ones have been transported to, Article 18 explained in a statement.
Others at the gathering who were not arrested had their cell phones taken and required to fill out forms stating that their phones had not been confiscated by agents.
Source: christianpost.com, Author: Samuel Smith
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