Arrest
Pourmand was arrested on September 9, 2004 along with up to 85 other church leaders at the annual general conference of Jama'at-e Rabbani, in Karaj, 18 miles west of the capital city, Tehran. Every single person present was put under arrest, blindfolded and taken for interrogation. Each individual was questioned separately by security officials, who had a list of specific questions. The interrogation revealed that the authorities had very precise information about each person, including his or her activities and other personal data.
By the evening, the authorities had released all the arrested Christians except for Pourmand and nine other pastors and elders among them. All of the released evangelicals were forbidden to attend church services.
On September 12, 2004, the nine pastors and elders were released quite late in the night. The pastors were not given any specific reason for their arrest, although they were asked many questions about themselves and each other. According to Middle East Concern and Compass Direct, Pourmand, remained in incommunicado detention in the first five months after his arrest.
A few days before Pourmand and his fellow evangelicals were arrested, a top official within the Ministry of Security Intelligence spoke on state television's Channel 1, warning the populace against the many "foreign religions" active in the country and pledging to protect the nation's "beloved Shiite Islam" from all outside forces.
Reportedly, this same official participated in the prolonged interrogation of the 10 evangelical pastors, complaining that Christian activities in Iran had gone out of control and insisting that their church do something to stop the flood of Christian literature, television and radio programs targeting Iran.
Read more about this topic: Hamid Pourmand
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