The Revolutionary Court upheld a 15-year prison sentence for a “Christian couple”

The officials of the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Court judges upheld the sentence of 15 years in prison, regardless of the age of the pastor Bet Tamraz and his wife and the Corona situation!

Reports received from Iran indicate that Assyrian pastor ” Victor Bet Tamraz ” has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and his wife ” Shamiram Isavi ” has been sentenced to 5 years in prison

According to ” Article 18 “, in the past three years the Christian couple and other members of the church’s appeals court have been repeatedly adjourned for no reason or under the pretext of overcrowding or appointing a new judge to hear the case

Pastor Bet Tamraz’s lawyer informed his client by telephone on July 20 that his appeal had been rejected and that no further hearing would take place

Shamiram Issavi was also summoned to Evin Prison on Tuesday, August 12, to begin his prison sentence within five days

Rev. Victor Bet Tamraz, along with three other Christian citizens, “Hadi Asgari, Kavian Fallah Mohammadi and Amin Afshar Naderi,” were tried in June 2017 in Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Ahmadzadeh. Pastor Bet Tamraz, Mr. Asgari and Mr. Fallah Mohammadi were sentenced to 10 years in prison and Amin Afshar Naderi to 15 years in prison. Pastor Bet Tamraz was charged with “evangelical activity,” “acting against national security by forming and running house churches

Victor Bet Tamraz was the pastor of the Pentecostal Church for the Assyrians on Shahr-Ara Street in Tehran. This church was the last Assyrian-speaking Persian church, which was closed in late March 2009 under pressure from security officials. After that, the Pastor and his wife met and worshiped in private homes wıth those who were interested

Two years ago, Amnesty International issued a statement calling for immediate action to overturn the prison sentences of  Pastor Bet Tamraz and his wife, Shamiram Issawi.

Dabrina Bet Tamraz, the daughter of Pastor Bet Tamraz, has expressed concern about the possibility of her parents being imprisoned, even as the prevalence of Corona virus in Iranian prisons has increased and the situation is not normal

Dabrina Bet Tamrez : “My parents are trying to maintain social distancing and health protocals, but if they go to prison, the prisons are not a sanitary environment for the elderly anyway. So going to prison, at their age, and with my mother’s heart problems and my father’s blood pressure problems, is unthinkable

The daughter of the Pastor Bet Tamraz is one of the people who tried hard to be the voice of religious minorities in Iran. In July 2019, during a meeting with US President Donald Trump, she pointed to aspects of the persecution of her family in Iran by government institutions and spoke about the plight of religious minorities and dissidents inside Iran

Ms. Bet Tamrez spoke of the pressure on about 200 Christians in Iran in 2018, noting that in addition to Christians, the Islamic Republic of Iran discriminates against Baha’is, Sunnis and dervishes. He also called on the international community to hold Iran accountable for its treatment of religious minorities

The Islamic Republic of Iran has intensified its pressure on religious minorities and religious dissidents, regardless of international warnings. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom in its 2020 report, advised the US State Department to continue to rank Iran as a “systematic, persistent, and gross violation of the religious freedom” of its people, on its list of countries ” With special concern “. However, government officials never succumb to their inhumane treatment of minorities