Biography:

Youcef Nadarkhani was born on April 11, 1977 to Muslim parents in Rasht, Iran. Though not religious as a child, he converted to Christianity at age 19, becoming a member of the Only Jesus Church. He is currently both a member of the evangelical Church of Iran and pastor of a 400-member house church.

In December 2006, authorities detained Pastor Nadarkhani and charged him with “apostasy” and “evangelism.” They released him two weeks later. On October 13, 2009, while applying to register his church, Nadarkhani again was arrested for protesting a government policy that required all students, including his two sons (then aged 8 and 6), to study the Qur’an in school.  He argued that the Iranian constitution permitted parents to raise children in their own faith.

The charges against Pastor Nadarkhani for protesting government education policy were amended to “apostasy” and “evangelism,” the same charges for which he initially was arrested in 2006. On September 22, 2010, Branch 11 of the Gilan Court of Appeals verbally issued him a death sentence for apostasy, although he maintained that he had not observed any religion before his conversion. Security officials delayed the delivery of Nadarkhani’s written verdict and gave him several opportunities to convert to Islam, all of which he refused.

On November 13, 2010, officials of the Revolutionary Tribunal finally delivered the written verdict from the September trial: execution by hanging. The pastor’s attorney, prominent human rights defender Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, appealed the sentence, arguing that apostasy was not a codified crime in the Penal Code reiterating that Nadarkhani had not practiced any religion before converting.

In September 2011, the courts once more determined that Nadarkhani had committed apostasy due to being born to Muslim parents and leaving Islam after the legal age of maturity. Following this announcement, international pressure began to build in support of Nadarkhani, including statements from USCIRF and from the European Union, United States, Australia, Mexico, Germany, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations. Nadarkhani’s execution order was issued in February 2012.

On September 8, 2012, amid continuing international outcry, Iranian courts acquitted Nadarkhani of apostasy in a retrial and rescinded the death penalty, allowing him to leave prison. While the court found him guilty of “evangelizing Muslims,” it credited him with prison time he had already served and released him on bail.

Years later, on May 13, 2016, Iranian Ministry of Intelligence officials in Rasht detained Nadarkhani and his wife, releasing them later that day. Three other Christians arrested with them--Yasser Mossayebzadeh, Saheb Fadaie, and Mohammad Reza Omidi-- were detained but later released on bail. However, Nadarkhani was summoned on July 24 and charged with “acting against national security.” He also was accused of Zionism and evangelizing. He was released the same day on the condition that he raise a 100 million toman bail (USD $33,000) within a week. Nadarkhani and his three co-defendants first were tried in Rasht in October 2016, but the court could not reach a verdict so the case was transferred to Tehran. The Revolutionary Court in Tehran held hearings in December 2016 and February and June 2017. During the June hearing, presiding Judge Mashallah Ahmadzadeh reportedly accused their church of annually receiving 500,000 pounds ($650,000) from the British government. In addition, non-presiding Judge Abolghasem Salavati reportedly disrupted the proceedings by bursting into the courtroom and proclaiming that Christians “make foolish claims.” On July 6, 2017, the four Christians received a verdict backdated to June 24, 2017.  Each was sentenced to 10 years in prison and allowed 20 days to appeal. Nadarkhani received an additional sentence of two years in exile in Nikshahr in southern Iran. Although the four continued to appeal their sentences, with an additional hearing taking place in December 2017, they were informed in May 2018 that their sentences had once more been upheld.

Early in the morning of July 22, 2018, plain clothes authorities raided Nadarkhani’s home and took him to the notorious Evin Prison. Authorities reportedly beat Nadarkhani and attacked his son with a taser during the raid. The following day, security forces also raided the homes of Yasser Mossayebzadeh, Saheb Fadaie, and Mohammad Reza Omidi, taking them to Evin prison without issuing an official summons.

In June 2020, Nadarkhani’s sentence was reduced to six years. He reportedly fell ill in February 2021 following a suspected COVID-19 outbreak within Evin Prison.   Although the Iranian government granted furloughs to about 85,000 prisoners in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he remains detained in Evin Prison because his alleged crimes are related to national security. His current release date is July 2024.

In April 2022, Nadarkhani was granted a short, temporary leave from prison.

On February 26, 2023, Nadarkhani was reportedly released from prison.

Biography:

Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee is an author and a life-long campaigner for human rights and women’s rights. Despite Golrokh Iraee being a Shi’a Muslim in a majority Shi’a Muslim country, the Iranian government has criminalized certain activities on the basis of its interpretation of Shi’a Islam and furthermore prosecutes those who speak out against this interpretation or are perceived to have violated it. In Iran, the boundaries between the political and the religious are blurred as the state itself claims religious authority.  Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran is governed under the doctrine of vilayet-e faqih or “leadership of the Islamic jurist” in which the Ayatollah is not only a religious authority but a political authority as well.

On September 6, 2014, plainclothes officers believed to be Revolutionary Guard agents arrested Golrokh, her husband Arash Sadeghi, and two others from Arash’s workplace. Authorities took them to Golrokh and Arash’s home, searched the premises without a warrant, and confiscated their possessions, including notebooks, laptops, and CDs. While detained, Golrokh was frequently blindfolded and forced to listen to interrogators threaten and abuse her husband in the adjacent cell. She was also unable to see her family or a lawyer and was subjected to long periods of interrogation. Officers interrogated Golrokh about her social media activity and a fictional, unpublished story she had handwritten in her notebook about a woman who burns a Qur’an after watching a Persian film depicting the real-life stoning of a woman for adultery. After 20 days, Golrokh was released on bail.

Golrokh and Arash’s trial began in May 2015 and was filled with due process violations. Their first lawyer was pressured to drop their case, and the government prohibited their second lawyer from accessing their case file and representing them at trial. A judge rejected Golrokh’s request to adjourn her second hearing scheduled in July 2015 since she was scheduled to undergo surgery the same day. On July 26, 2015, Golrokh was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison for blasphemy, formally called “insulting Islamic sanctities,” (Art. 513 IPC) in relation to her unpublished story, and one year in prison for spreading propaganda against the state (Art. 500 IPC) in relation to her social media activity. 

On October 24, 2016, agents from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrested Golrokh from her home and brought her to Evin Prison to begin serving her sentence. In January 2017, Golrokh was released from prison while a further appeal was pending. Later that same month, she was arrested again and brought back to Evin Prison. In March 2017, Golrokh’s sentence was reportedly reduced to two years and six months in prison as part of an Iranian New Year (Nowruz) pardon. In April 2019, Golrokh was released from prison after posting bail.

While Golrokh was out on bail, new charges were brought against her in June 2019 for her alleged involvement in prison protests against the execution of Kurdish activists. In July 2019, Golrokh was sentenced to two years and one month in prison for “insulting the Supreme Leader” (Art. 514 IPC) and one year and six months in prison for spreading propaganda against the state (Art. 500 IPC). Since the sentences run concurrently, she was effectively sentenced to two years and one month in prison. In September 2019, an appeals court affirmed her sentence. On November 9, 2019, security forces arrested Golrokh again from her home in Tehran.

In April 2021, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Golrokh in absentia to another year in prison for spreading propaganda against the state (Art. 500 IPC). The court also imposed two-year travel ban and banned her from participating in political groups for two years.

During her original imprisonment, Golrokh experienced harsh, inhumane living conditions. In July 2017, Golrokh and another prisoner issued an open letter documenting unsanitary conditions, lack of clean water, and an absence of medical care for political prisoners. In January 2018, guards assaulted Golrokh, and then transferred her to another prison known for denying prisoners sufficient food and potable water. She was also housed in a ward that included criminals convicted of violent crimes. In February 2018, Golrokh went on hunger strike in protest of her new prison conditions. During this time, Golrokh’s health deteriorated. In March 2018, guards transferred several violent offenders into the unit Golrokh lived in. The prisoners then verbally abused and physically assaulted Golrokh. Instead of stopping the violence, prison guards also assaulted Golrokh. In April 2018, Golrokh was transferred to a hospital in a critical condition after experiencing severe nausea, vomiting, and gallbladder issues. After 81 days, Golrokh ended her hunger strike.  Weeks later, she was transferred back to Evin Prison.

In December 2020, guards entered Golrokh’s cell in Qarchak Prison using stun guns and dragged Iraee out by her hair. She was then transferred to Ward 2A of Evin Prison, which is run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence unit. On January 24, 2021, she was moved back to Qarchak prison and transferred hours later to Amol Prison. She remains unable to make phone calls or contact her family and has also been denied visitation with her husband Arash Sadeghi, who is undergoing cancer treatment. 

On May 9, 2022, Golrokh was released from prison after her sentences were consolidated. 

Biography:

Gulmira Imin is a Uyghur Muslim and former web administrator for the Uighur-language website Salkin. Ms. Imin was also a government employee in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in northwest China. Xinjiang is home to the majority of the country’s Uyghur Muslim population.

Ms. Imin was born in 1978 in Aksu in Xinjiang and graduated in 2000 from the Chinese-Uyghur translation department of Xinjiang University. In spring 2009, Ms. Imin became the moderator of Salkin, a Uyghur-language culture and news website to which she had previously contributed poetry and short stories. Many of her online writings criticized government policies.

On July 5, 2009, Ms. Imin participated in a major demonstration protesting the deaths of Uighur migrant workers in Guangdong Province.  Initially peaceful, the protests turned violent, with about 200 people, including ethnic Han Chinese, killed during the uprisings and confrontations with police. On July 14, 2009, Ms. Imin was arrested in Aksu after authorities alleged she had organized the protests, posted an announcement for them on Salkin, and leaked state secrets by phone to her husband in Norway.  Her family was not notified of the arrest and was unaware of her location until the October 2009 airing of a China Central Television documentary that depicted Imin in prison garb.

On April 1, 2010, the Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Ms. Imin to life in prison under Articles 103, 111, and 296 of China’s Criminal Law on charges of “splittism, leaking state secrets, and organizing an illegal demonstration.” She alleges she was tortured and forced to sign documents while in detention.  She reportedly was not allowed to meet with her lawyer until the trial. Her appeal subsequently was rejected. Ms. Imin is currently detained in the Xinjiang Women’s Prison (Xinjiang No. 2 Prison) located in Urumqi, where she is allowed one family visit every three months.

According to reports in June 2021, Chinese authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have reduced her life sentence to 19 years and 8 months after she signed a written statement of remorse in 2017. Chinese authorities videotaped her 2017 statement, which activists and her supporters say was likely forced, and later showed the video in prisons and re-education camps, according to a policeman worked in Kashgar’s Yanbulaq Prison as well as in an internment camp in Opal