One Tehran source close to Pourmand's case said he was hopeful that this judicial proof of religious intolerance in Iran would be highlighted during the annual six-week session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, convening now in Geneva.
The European Union (EU) lodged a formal protest with Iranian authorities last November over the arrests of Christians -- and in particular Christian pastors -- as an "infringement of the freedom of religion or belief."
Pourmand's verdict was labeled "a shocking travesty of justice, even by Iran's meager standards" by Nina Shea of Freedom House in Washington, D.C. His arrest was also noted in the latest report on human rights in Iran released in March by the U.S. State Department.
Transferred to a group prison cell at Tehran's maximum-security Evin Prison after the February trial, Pourmand's sentence automatically discharged him from the army, cutting off not only his regular income, but also eliminating nearly 20 years of military pension. Pourmand's wife and two children were required to immediately vacate their home in military lodgings. "His family has nothing now," a source confirmed. "No salary, no house, nothing."
Pourmand and his wife Arlet, who is from an Assyrian Christian background, have two teenage sons, Immanuel and David. They were living in Bandar-i Bushehr, a southern port city where he served as volunteer lay pastor of a small Assemblies of God congregation.
Copyright 2005 Compass Direct
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