Two believers have gone into voluntary exile to escape harsh penalties in the aftermath of a raid by intelligence officers.
Mehdi Rahimi (49) and Kia Nourinia (55) were tried in absentia in April and convicted under Article 500 of the Penal Code of “propaganda activity of deviant Christian Zionist beliefs opposed to the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” They were each sentenced to 10 years in prison.They were also convicted under Articles 22 and 24 of “smuggling prohibited goods,” for which they received two years and were fined.
Iranian intelligence agents raided their homes in November 2024 and discovered multiple copies of Bibles. Mehdi was out of the country at the time of the raid. Kia fled Iran shortly afterward.
They were also sentenced to 15 years each of deprivation of social rights and fined equivalent tof more than $1,000 each. They were also ordered to pay the court 10 times the value of the Bibles found in their possession.
Please pray that God leads these Christians as they consider future steps and that the Iranian authorities will halt the criminalisation of Christian converts and regarding the Bible as “deviant and misleading” – as the judge claimed in his summation.
Source Article 18
