Mostafa Mohammad Bordbar

Update November 5, 2013

After serving ten months in Iran’s Evin prison for Christian activities, we rejoice that Mostafa Mohammad Bordbar was released on Nov. 3, 2013 and acquitted of all charges. Mostafa was arrested on Dec. 27, 2012 for “attending an illegal gathering and participating in a house church.” He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in July. Mostafa’s lawyer appealed and in a scheduled hearing on Oct. 30, the court decided to withdraw all charges.

Prisoner Details

Christian convert from Islam Mohammad-Hadi Bordbar, known as Mostafa, was sentenced to ten years in prison for being a part of an “anti-security organization” and “gathering with intent to commit crimes against Iranian national security” on July 31. Mostafa was arrested on December 27, 2012, along with 50 other Iranian Christian converts who were celebrating Christmas in Tehran. They were detained and interrogated for hours before most of the group was released. Mostafa and an Armenian Christian pastor, Vruir Avanesian, were arrested.

Before his sentencing, Mostafa’s family offered up the deed to their home in Rasht as bail, but the court refused to accept it because it is in a different county. He remained in Evin prison.

Mostafa Bordbar was first arrested in 2009 in his hometown of Rasht for converting to Christianity and attending a house church. He was found guilty of apostasy (abandoning Islam), but he was released after posting bail. The apostasy conviction remained on his record.

Mostafa plans to appeal.

Below is a summary of the charges against him:

-Being involved in Christian evangelical activities used to fight the Islamic regime of Iran through the establishment of evangelical ministries and holding underground worship meetings

-Mostafa’s baptism

-Continued attendance to a house church

-Leading weekly house church gatherings

-Providing other believers in other cities with evangelical material

-Translating and dubbing five movies related to Christian evangelism

-Clear confession to the court that he left Islam and converted to Christianity

-Clear confession to the court that he considered evangelism a duty

-Confession that he has distributed 12,000 pocket-sized Bibles

-Discovery of 6,000 Bibles, gospel CDs and other books and CDs related to Christianity in his house