Two Iranian Christian converts have been taken by Iran’s security agents from the houses they were staying in Karaj and Mashhad on 16th November, reports Middle East Concern.
Behnam Ersali and Davood Rasooli had agreed to meet in Mashhad on Friday when they were both arrested. It is believed Iranian intelligence knew of their arrangement after intercepting their calls, according to MEC.
Ersali was already in Mashhad, 946 kilometres from Karaj in northeastern Iran, when six security agents raided his friend’s house where he was staying and arrested them both. While they released his friend after a few hours, Ersali remains in custody in an unknown location, said MEC.
Meanwhile Rasooli, also known as David, and who is a former member of the Assemblies of God church in Tehran, was arrested in front of his home in Karaj, near Tehran, at 6am on Friday as he prepared to travel to Mashhad. Two plain-clothed security agents took him away but returned later to search his house and confiscated some of his books and personal belongings, reported Mohabat News.
Since their arrest, the two men have not been in touch with family or friends and it is not known on what charges they are detained or where they are kept, although Rasooli’s friends suspect he is held in solitary confinement and interrogated in Rajai Shahr Prison, according to MEC.
Read the report in Sight Magazine.