Armenian pastor released in Iran after 1 year in prison

PanARMENIAN.Net - After enduring approximately one year of imprisonment, Pastor Vahik Abrahamian, an Armenian Christian, was released in the morning of August 29, reported the Farsi Christian News Network.

Abrahamian was arrested by security agents, together with his wife Sonia Keshish Avanessian, on September 4, 2010, in his home in Hamedan and was accused of various offences, including propagating Christianity, opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran, and having contact with exiled opposition figures

Pastor Vahik & his wife, together with family friends, Arash and Arezou were all held for 44 days in solitary confinement in the ministry of information’s detention centre. In this period all were subjected to intensive interrogation and severe mental and psychological torture without any permission to contact family or friends.

They were then moved to the Hamedan prison’s general ward and after 8 months of ordeal they were proven not guilty in a court hearing and subsequently Sonia, Arash & Arezou were released on April 30, 2010 but Pastor Vahik was held back until now.

He was released after family and friends posted cash bail of 10 million toomans pending his trial. Vahik and Sonia had already moved out to Hamedan to live peacefully and serve the community away from the clutter of the capital and were indeed in their own home with one other couple when they were suddenly arrested.