COMPASS/FCNN report: ” A wave of arrests hit Iranian house churches during the Christmas season, leaving at least five Christian converts in detention across northern Iran, including the mother of an ailing 10-year-old girl.”
— “Security officers with an arrest warrant from the Mashhad Revolutionary Court entered the home of Christian Hamideh Najafi in Mashhad on Dec. 16. After searching her home and confiscating personal belongings, including books and compact discs, police took her to an undisclosed location, according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN).”
— “FCNN reported that on Dec. 30 the Mashhad Revolutionary Court sentenced Najafi to three months of house arrest and ordered that her daughter, who suffers from a kidney condition, be placed under foster care. Because of the seriousness of the girl’s illness, however, she was left in the custody of her parents – on the condition that they cease believing in Christ and stop speaking publicly of their faith, FCNN reported.”
— “Najafi was denied access to a lawyer during this court hearing, according to FCNN.”
— “During interrogation, officers told Najafi to return to Islam and to disclose names of Christian evangelists. FCNN reported that on some occasions the security officers summoned her husband, blindfolded him and threatened to beat him in front of his wife if she would not sign a confession that she was ‘mentally and psychologically unfit and disturbed.’ ”
— “The Dec. 30 court hearing was quickly arranged after she was coerced into signing this confession, FCNN reported, and on those grounds her child was initially ordered to be taken from her. Najafi’s daughter suffers from a severe kidney and bladder condition.”
— “There were no formal charges against Najafi, but she stands accused of contacting a foreign Christian television network, which court officials labeled as a ‘political’ crime, according to FCNN.”
— English FCNN Report: “Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN), reports that at 8 am on December 16, 2009, several security officers entered the home of Hamideh Najafi, a Christian lady who resides in the city of Mashhad, and not only searched her home thoroughly, but also arrested and took her away to an unknown location.”
— “According to this news three security officers, two female and one male, who carried an order for arrest from the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad, entered the home of this lady and after searching the her home seized her personal belongings along with books, CDs, and hand painted portraits of Jesus Christ that were hanging on her walls. According to these officers the existence of these pictures will be sufficient evidence that would convict her in court.”
— “Even though Mashhad is the birthplace of Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, and is considered one of the holiest centers of the Shiite faith (Ghom being the other center in Iran) and also a center of pilgrimage and theological schools, in the recent years there have been significant growth of the underground home based churches.”
— English FCNN Report: “According to the news received by the Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN), Security police and plain-clothes officers attacked a gathering of Christian believers on Thursday, December 17th, and arrested two leaders and took them away to an undisclosed location.”
— “According to the reports received 15 security police and undercover plain-clothes officers, in a coordinated plan, attacked a gathering in the city of Karaj and interrupted the pre-Christmas celebrations.”
— “This celebration and gathering of more than 70 newly converted Christians, which was attacked by security forced, was being conducted in a hall on the occasion of the arrival of Christmas and the New Year.”
— “The security police not only interrupted the celebrations, but arrested two of the leaders of the group named Kambiz Saghaee and Ali Keshvar-Doost and took them away.”
— “Moreover, the security officers photographed and videotaped everyone and demanded that everyone must be accessible during the period leading up to formal and legal interrogations and must present themselves to the authorities upon receiving orders to appear before legal prosecutors.”
— “This report adds that the security officers confiscated all the Bibles, other Christian books, and a lap top computer and its accessories.”
— “According to FCNN, Kambiz Saghaee and Ali Keshvar-Doost, who were arrested by the police, are still held at an undisclosed location and there has been no phone or any other contact with their families and loved ones. The families of these detainees, due to not having any information about the state of their loved ones, have attempted on several occasions to contact the appropriate ministries and organizations. The local authorities have informally told these family members that their loved ones are being held at the facilities of the local revolutionary court and have withheld all other information from them.”