Name: Mohammed Vafadar Country/Area of Origin: Iran Background: Vafadar is one of the group of nine Iranian Christian converts that were arrested throughout January and February 2019. Reason for Arrest: On 15 February 2019, Mohammed Vafadar was arrested with Shahrooz Eslamdoust and Kamal Naamanian during a house church raid. Their arrests coincided with the detention …
Name: Shahrooz Eslamdoust Country/Area of Origin: Iran Background: Eslamdoust is one of the group of nine Iranian Christian converts that were arrested throughout January and February 2019. Reason for Arrest: On 15 February 2019, Shahrooz Eslamdoust was arrested with Mohammed Vafadar and Kamal Naamanian during a house church raid. Their arrests coincided with the detention of …
Name: Babak Hosseinzadeh Country/Area of Origin: Iran Background: Hosseinzadeh is one of the group of nine Iranian Christian converts that were arrested throughout January and February 2019. Reason for Arrest: On 23 February 2019, Babak Hosseinzadeh was arrested at a house church. Six other Iranian Christian colleagues – Abdolreza Ali Haghnejad, Shahrooz Eslamdoust, Khalil Dehghanpour, Hossein …
Name: Mehdi Khatibi Country/Area of Origin: Iran Background: Khatibi is one of the group of nine Iranian Christian converts that were arrested throughout January and February 2019. Reason for Arrest: On 23 February 2019, Mehdi Khatibi was arrested at a house church. Six other Iranian Christian colleagues – Abdolreza Ali Haghnejad, Shahrooz Eslamdoust, Khalil Dehghanpour, Hossein …
Name: Behnam Akhlaghi Country/Area of Origin: Iran Background: Akhlaghi is one of the group of nine Iranian Christian converts that were arrested throughout January and February 2019. Reason for Arrest: On 23 February 2019, Behnam Akhlaghi was summoned to the office of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to be arrested following the arrests of his colleagues, Mehdi …
Name: Mussie Eyob Age: 40 Country/Area of Origin: Eritrea Background: Mussie Eyob converted to Christianity in 2008 Reason for Arrest: In 2011, while temporarily residing in Saudi Arabia, Mussie went to a local mosque in Jeddah to talk to attendees and preach about Christianity. He was arrested in February of 2011 for his evangelism, because …
Name: Twen Theodros Country/Area of Origin: Eritrea Background: Theodros is an Eritrean Christian Reason for Arrest: Theodros was originally arrested in Asmara, Eritrea in 2004 for her spiritual beliefs, but she was swiftly released after her father convinced her to sign documents pledging that she would neither evangelize nor engage in Christian worship or activities. …
Name: Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee Country/Area of Origin: Iran Reason for Arrest: Iraee is an Iranian accountant, writer, and human rights advocate whose major target for activism is abolishing the inhumane punishment of stoning which is used in Iran. In September 2014, following Iraee’s writing of an article condemning the cruel practice, authorities barged into her …
Name: Ramy Kamel Saied Salid (commonly known as Ramy Kamel) Country/Area of Origin: Egypt Background: Kamel is a notable Egyptian human rights defender and Coptic Christian who has participated in numerous events to highlight the ill-treatment of Egyptian minority groups. He is a founder of the Maspero Youth Union, which works towards ending discrimination towards …
Picture by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia Name: Gennadiy Shpakovsky Age: 61 Country/Area of Origin: Russia Background: Gennadiy Shpakovsky, along with his wife and daughter, are practicing Jeahovah’s Witnesses. Jehovah’s Witnesses have historically been persecuted by the Russian government, and in 2017 the religious sect was determined to be an extremist ideology. Handfuls of Jehovah’s Witnesses …
