a Christian news agency reported late Monday, September 13. Compass news agency, which has close contacts with persecuted Christians, quoted an unidentified Iranian source as saying that the group was released Sunday “quite late in the night.”
They were detained four days earlier together with 70 other Assemblies of God representatives, when police raided their meeting at a church center in Karaj, 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the capital Tehran.
Iranian security forces reportedly blindfolded all men and women present and interrogated them. All detainees were released by nightfall except for the 10 pastors and elders, the church confirmed.
News about their release came just hours after Springfield based U.S. Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM) urged its supporters to pray for the detained group.
"Iranian brethren contacted AGWM to call the Body of Christ to prayer," said Mark Hausfeld, Area Director for AGWM’s Central Eurasia Missions in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife.
Compass quoted church sources as saying that "they were not given any reason for their arrest", although they were asked "many questions about themselves and each other."
Due to close police surveillance, the 10 leaders have not made direct contact with other evangelical believers since their release, Compass reported.
ORDAINED MINISTERS
Six ordained ministers were named among the freed prisoners, as Vartan, Soren, Harmik, George, Omid and Farhad. Another two men serving as pastors and two church elders were identified as Neshan, Hamid, Henry and Robert.
Since its declaration as an Islamic state in 1979, Iran has clamped down harshly on its Protestant citizens.
The murderers of three of Iran’s leading Protestant pastors 10 years ago have never been brought to justice, Compass said.
"Assemblies of God leader Rev. Haik Hovsepian-Mehr was murdered in January 1994, shortly after launching a successful international campaign to free Mehdi Dibaj, a long-time convert to Christianity jailed for nine years. Six months later, Dibaj was also killed, followed days later by the disappearance and murder of Rev. Tateos Michaelian, a Presbyterian pastor," recalled Compass.
Under Islamic law, apostates who leave Islam are subject to the death penalty. Iran is one of the over 200 countries where AGWM claims to be represented by 4,000 people, including 1,900 appointed missionaries, 600 missionary associates and 1,500 missionary children. The Pentecostal denomination supporting AGWM has roughly 50 million members and adherents with 250,000 churches and preaching points worldwide, according to Assemblies of God estimates.
Iranian representatives of the church had expressed concern that authorities may prepare a new massive crackdown on evangelicals in the Islamic nation.
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