A 62-year-old Iranian-Armenian pastor has been acquitted and freed after serving just over a year of a ten-year sentence in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
Anooshavan Avedian had been imprisoned for leading a house church.
According to Article 18, his release followed a successful appeal heard at Tehran’s Branch 21 of the Appeal Court on Tuesday 24th September.
Avedian’s time in prison ended on the same day Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited New York, mirroring the timing of his imprisonment, which coincided with former President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to the city last year.
Despite this timing, Mansour Borji, director of Article18—a group advocating for religious freedom in Iran—cautioned against assuming a connection.
Borji emphasised that Avedian's imprisonment was unjust from the start, stating: “For Anooshavan to have spent even one day in prison was unjust, especially now that he has been found to have committed no crime. We hope he will be fully compensated for all that he has endured.”
Avedian’s release follows international pressure, including calls from the UN Human Rights Committee last year for Iran to release those imprisoned for practising their faith.
Article 18 has also consistently urged the Iranian government to release Christian prisoners of conscience, including in a recent submission to the UN in July.
There are still at least 21 Christians serving sentences in Iran for their faith, with at least ten currently held in Evin Prison.
Among them is Hakop Gochumyan, an Armenian citizen sentenced to ten years for alleged "deviant proselytising".
Gochumyan accompanied Avedian to the prison gate upon his release.
Avedian's acquittal was made possible after the Supreme Court accepted his latest petition for a retrial, which was lodged in April 2024, having previously denied all other appeals.