Police torture new Christian couple in Iran

Police torture new Christian couple in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran — Security police officials in Tehran, Iran, tortured a newly converted couple in June and threatened to put their 4-year-old daughter in an institution after arresting them for holding Bible studies and attending a house church.

A Christian source in Iran said that 28-year-old Tina Rad was charged with “activities against the holy religion of Islam” for reading the Bible with Muslims in her home in east Tehran and trying to convert them. Officials charged her husband, 31-year-old Makan Arya, with “activities against national security” after seizing the couple from their home June 3, forcing them to leave their daughter ill and unattended.

Authorities kept them in an unknown jail for four days, which left them badly bruised from beatings, said the source. Rad was released on $30,000 bail, and her husband was freed on payment of $20,000. “The next time there may also be an apostasy charge, if you don’t stop with your Jesus,” a security police officer told Rad during interrogation, according to the source. Under Iran’s strict Islamic laws, Muslims who convert from Islam to another religion can be executed.