The already relentless persecution of Christians in Iran has increased in scope and brutality since 2024. Evangelical house churches are particularly affected. The total number of arrests and prison sentences imposed in 2024 was five to six times higher than in the previous year. According to reports, arrests, interrogations, and ill-treatment during detention were particularly brutal. This was the conclusion reached this year by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) in a report.

“Iranian authorities are abducting more and more Christians, making absurd accusations of endangering national security, and imprisoning them for years simply for practicing their faith peacefully,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of CHRI.

According to him, the Islamic Republic is terrified of its growing Christian convert community and is attempting to destroy it in the same way it crushes all perceived threats. This is done through “sham trials in sham courts, brutal violence, and years of imprisonment.”

In 2024, the imprisonment of Christians in Iran increased sixfold. Authorities sentenced 96 Christians to a total of 263 years in prison, compared to 43.5 years for 22 people in 2023.

To justify long prison sentences, the courts typically used a provision added to Article 500 of Iran’s Penal Code in 2021, which stipulates severe penalties for anyone who “engages in deviant educational or proselytising activities that contradict or compromise the sacred law of Islam.” According to the CHRI report, the mullah regime relies on fear and repression to maintain control.

A recent example is the fate of 45-year-old Christian Hesamoddin Mohammad Joneydi , who was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison, according to a Mohabat News report on September 25, 2025. He was arrested in late 2024 and held in Evin Prison before being released on bail.

Joneydi had participated in Christian training courses in Turkey, attended house church services both locally and online, and peacefully promoted his faith. The mullah dictatorship viewed these as “propaganda activities” directed against Islamic law and the Islamic Republic.

Shamloui is already in custody. The Supreme Court refused to reopen his case. Shamloui was arrested in 2024 and sentenced to ten years and eight months in prison in March 2025 for his participation in a house church. The charges against the convert (who converted from Islam to Christianity) were “propaganda activities that violate Islamic law” and “membership in anti-state groups.” He was released on bail at the end of 2024. During his subsequent escape, he was apprehended without papers in Turkey in July 2025 and immediately deported to Iran, where he was immediately imprisoned again.

The ISHR appeals to the international public to demand that the Iranian authorities immediately release those imprisoned for their faith and, in particular, to immediately stop the persecution of Christian converts. This global effort is having an impact in individual cases and is helping to change fates, including this summer’s “Prisoner of the Month February 2025,” the Christian Laleh Saati.

The 46-year-old Iranian was finally released on May 31 after 15 months in prison. She had been sentenced to 24 months in prison in March 2024 for “endangering national security” through alleged ties to Zionist organizations. She had been held in Evin Prison in Tehran since February 13, 2024. There, she was denied necessary medical treatment: she was suffering from mental health problems. Saati had turned her back on Islam and been baptized during a stay in Malaysia. She has lived in her native Iran again since 2017.