Speaking about his time in prison, Mr Alijani said: “The mental anguish affects you physically, even if you are not mistreated physically. When my family came to visit me they said they could see the anguish written on my face.... Each time I was sick, I would go to the prison pharmacy which was run by inmates and only really provided painkillers.... The guards regularly tried to get me to reconvert.”
Davoud Alijani, a leader in the Assemblies of God (AoG) church in Ahwaz, was released from Karoon Prison on 13 January 2014, 20 days before his sentence was due to be completed.
Speaking about his time in prison, Mr Alijani said: “The mental anguish affects you physically, even if you are not mistreated physically. When my family came to visit me they said they could see the anguish written on my face.... Each time I was sick, I would go to the prison pharmacy which was run by inmates and only really provided painkillers.... The guards regularly tried to get me to reconvert.”
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Lawyers representing Protestant Pastor Zhang Shaojie and members of his church have encountered various obstacles that have prevented them from meeting with their clients, who were detained by police on 16 November without any formal documentation. According to reports from China Aid and comments posted by activists on social media, lawyers who have tried to meet with Pastor Zhang and the other detainees have been faced with bureaucratic obstacles, hostile officials, and ill-timed “power outages”. Pastor Zhang, 48, belongs to the Nanle County Christian Church under the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). On 16 November, police forcibly detained Pastor Zhang without any formal documentation, possibly in response to his work defending the vulnerable social groups. Zhang’s sisters and other church members were also detained, and several others were summoned to government offices. Then on 18 November, over a hundred church members and other supporters gathered in front of the city hall to demand Pastor Zhang’s unconditional release. Over one hundred relatives, church members and supporters of Pastor Zhang Shaojie, a Protestant pastor, joined in a protest on 18 November in Henan Province, China, to call for his release from prison. Pastor Zhang Shaojie, 48, belongs to the Nanle County Christian Church under the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). On 16 November, police forcibly detained Pastor Zhang without any formal documentation. Some sources suggest that his detention was a result of his work defending the rights of vulnerable groups. In response, a number of relatives and church members gathered in front of the police station and were subsequently beaten. Zhang’s sisters were also detained, and several church members were summoned to government offices. On 18 November, over a hundred church members and other supporters gathered in front of the city hall to demand Pastor Zhang’s unconditional release. The current whereabouts of Pastor Zhang and his sisters are unknown. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is calling on the Mexican government to prosecute local officials responsible for the unjust imprisonment and torture of four protestant Christians from 5-8 November in the western state of Oaxaca. Reverend Leopoldo Alonso, leader of the Independent Pentecostal Christian Church in San Juan Ozolotepec, and three members of his church, Manuel Martínez Silva, Miguel Silva Reyes and Plácido Aragón, were imprisoned on 5 November on the orders of the municipal president, who had ordered the destruction of the Pentecostal church on 4 November. The four men were freed on 8 November after government officials, accompanied by state police, traveled to the municipality to intervene. Photos of the men, who were admitted to the local hospital, showed signs that they had been severely beaten. Iranian Christian Mostafa Bordbar was released from prison on 3 November, following a successful appeal against the 10 year prison sentence he received on 31 July 2013. His release comes almost three months after he was imprisoned in Evin Prison on charges of being a member of an “anti-security organization” and “gathering with intent to commit crimes against Iranian national security.” An appeal court cleared him of all of charges on 30 October. Four Iranian Christians jailed for attending a house church have lost their judicial appeals. Mojtaba Seyyed Alaedin Hossein, Mohammad-Reza Partoei, Vahid Hakkani and Homayoun Shokouhi were each sentenced in June to three years and eight months in prison. Shokouhi’s wife Fariba and son Nima both received suspended sentences of two years’ imprisonment at the appeals-court hearing, which took place on Oct. 12 in Shira Angel Tree, a program of Prison Fellowship Ministries, has recently announced a special partnership with K-LOVE radio during its Fall Pledge Drive. For each new $40 per month commitment to K-LOVE, Prison Fellowship will help make sure that one Angel Tree child receives a Christmas gift, the Gospel, and a message of love from their parent who is in prison. The disappearance of an Italian Jesuit priest on July 29th, following the kidnapping of two other clergymen in April, reflects the dangers Christians are facing in this war-torn country. Rev. Paolo Dall'Oglio, who spent three decades in Syria before the government deported him last year for helping victims of President Bashar al-Assad's military crackdown, re-entered the country in late July. The reverend's disappearance comes three months after the kidnapping of the Greek Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox archbishops of Aleppo. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is concerned about a crackdown on unregistered Christian meetings in Xinjiang, northwest China, in the last five months, amidst high levels of tension and outbreaks of violence in the region. According to reports from China Aid Association, a number of unregistered Christian groups have been closed down, fined or had their members detained by police in Xinjiang in the last five months. Mostafa Bordbar, a Christian convert, has been sentenced to ten years in prison for being part of an “anti-security organization” and “gathering with intent to commit crimes against Iranian national security”. The verdict was delivered to his lawyer on 31 July by a Judge from Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, following his trial on 9 June. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has been informed that Mr Bordbar is currently being held in Evin prison. |
Walter Blackwood
Associate Pastor with The Bridge Community of Faith in Kelowna BC Canada. Archives
May 2017
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