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ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com, Web Site: www.assistnews.net

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

PENTECOSTAL PASTOR STILL DETAINED IN IRAN AT UNKNOWN LOCATION
Set-back for Assemblies of God

By: Stefan J. Bos
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

Christians were detained near Tehran.

Source: Rouzbeh"s Tehran Journal

TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS) -- One of 10 Pentecostal pastors who were reportedly released in Iran Christians were detained near Tehran Sunday is still jail at an unknown location, church sources said Wednesday September 15.

47-year old Hamid Pourmand from Bandar-i Bushehr of the Assemblies of God has been unable to contact his family following a police raid on a general meeting of his denomination in Karaj, 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the capital Tehran, Compass news agency and other church officials said.

The nine other church leaders and about 70 other Assemblies of God representatives detained last week were still free on Wednesday, but human rights watchers have expressed concern about police surveillance.

"Since being released, they have had no contact with other evangelical Christians because of the intense police surveillance," reported the Voice Of the Martyrs (VOM), which is investigating the plight of persecuted believers
worldwide.

NO REASON GIVEN

"As of last report, those who had been detained were given no reason for their arrests. They reportedly faced intense questioning about themselves and the other pastors," VOM added.

Pastor Pourmand converted from Islam twenty-five years ago and is married with two children, Compass news agency said. VOM and other organizations have expressed concern about the situation, amid fears of a new crack down against evangelical Christians in the Islamic nation.

It urged its supporters to "pray for protection for Pastor Pourmand" and to "pray for peace and strength for his wife and children." The organization stressed it was important to "pray for the continued ministry of Evangelical churches in Iran, despite the intense opposition."

GOVERNMENT EXECUTION

Since a government ordered execution of convert pastor Hussein Soodmand in December 1990, Iran has stepped up its attacks against the countries evangelical churches and others accused of evangelizing, Compass said.

Iran, described by critics as "the world’s only theocracy" has strictly enforced Islamic law. Anyone who leaves Islam is subject to the death penalty, human rights watchers say.

Read more on these and other news stories on news agency BosNewsLife at website http://www.bosnewslife.com

Award winning Journalist Stefan J. Bos was born on the 19th of September 1967 in a small home in downtown Amsterdam, in the Netherlands not far from the typewriter of his father, who was (and still is) a Reporter and ghostwriter. Already at a very young age Bos decided to become journalist and finally arrived in Hungary, the same country where his parents had smuggled Bibles during Communism.

Bos has traveled extensively to cover wars and revolutions throughout the region and received the Annual Press Award of Merit from the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his coverage about foreign policy affairs including Hungary's relationship with NATO and the European Union. Stefan J. Bos can be reached at: stefan@bosnewslife.com.

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