Youcef Nadarkhani

Nadarkhani was again arrested and beaten on July 22, 2018 and is currently in prison in Iran.

Iranian state security forces raided Youcef Nadarkhani's home on July 22, 2018. He was beaten, his son was tasered, and Nadarkhani was taken to prison.

Youcef Nadarkhani (born 1977) is an Iranian Christian pastor who was sentenced to death (but later acquitted) in Tehran as being a Christian having been born into Islam. Initial reports, including a 2010 brief from the Iranian Supreme court, stated that the sentence on Nadarkhani (first name also spelled Yousef, Youssef, or Yousof; last name also spelled Nadar-Khani or Nadar Khani) was based on the crime of apostasy, renouncing his Islamic faith. Government officials later claimed that the sentence was instead based on alleged violent crimes, specifically rape and extortion; however, no formal charges or evidence of violent crimes have been presented in court. According to Amnesty International and Nadarkhani's legal team, the Iranian government had offered leniency if he were to recant his Christianity. His lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah stated that an appeals court upheld his sentence after he refused to renounce his Christian faith and convert to Islam In early September 2012, Nadarkhani was acquitted of apostasy, but found guilty of evangelizing Muslims, though he was immediately released as having served prison time. However, he was taken back into custody on Christmas Day 2012 and then released shortly afterwards on 7 January 2013.

Youcef Nadarkhani was taken back into custody on Christmas Day 2012. He was released on 7 January 2013.

Nadarkhani was acquitted of apostasy at retrial on 8 September 2012. During proceedings, the court found him guilty of evangelizing Muslims and sentenced him to three years in prison, time he has already served. He was released and returned to his family.

In early September 2012, Nadarkhani was acquitted of apostasy, sparing him the death penalty. However, he was found guilty of evangelism, but released for having already served his time.

On 28 September 2011 the Commission on International Religious Freedom stated:

President Barack Obama's 30 September 2011 statement read:

On 28 September 2011, British Foreign Secretary William Hague issued a statement condemning the imminent execution, stating

On 1 October 2011 the Iran state media reported that Nadarkhani is facing the death sentence for rape and extortion, not for apostasy and refusing to renounce his religion, as his lawyer, human rights groups and Western news media have reported. They also reported that they had not signed his execution order. Nadarkhani's lawyer said that he believed that Nadarkhani would not be executed.

On 18 June 2010 Nadarkhani's wife was arrested and charged with apostasy. She was sentenced to life imprisonment, and placed in prison in Lakan, Iran, which is just south of their hometown of Rasht. She was released in October 2010., after serving four months in prison.

The charges against Nadarkhani were later changed to apostasy and evangelism, the same charges he was initially arrested under in 2006. On 21–22 September 2010, Nadarkhani appeared before the 11th Chamber of The Assize Court of the province of Gilan and received a death sentence for the charge of apostasy. Nadarkhani's lawyer, Nasser Sarbaz, claims there were numerous procedural errors during Nadarkhani's trial.

On 13 November 2010, the verdict for the trial of 21–22 September was finally delivered in writing, indicating that Nadarkhani would be executed by hanging. The sentence was appealed and the 3rd Chamber of the Supreme Court in Qom upheld the conviction and sentence of death. In July 2011 Mr. Nadarkhani's lawyer, Mr. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a prominent Iranian human rights defender, received the written verdict of the Supreme Court of Iran, dated 12 June 2011, which upholds the death sentence. The Supreme Court decision asked the court in Rasht, which issued the original death sentence, to re-examine some procedural flaws in the case, but ultimately gave the local judges the power to decide whether to release, execute or retry Mr. Nadarkhani in October. The recent written verdict included a provision for annulment should Mr. Nadarkhani recant his faith. As of 2011 he was being kept in a security prison in Lakan.

On 29 October 2010, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom asked President Barack Obama to press Iran for Nadarkhani's release. If the execution is carried out, Nadarkhani would be the first Christian executed for religious reasons in Iran in over 20 years.

In 2009, Nadarkhani discovered a recent change in Iranian educational policy that required all students, including his children, to take a course in Quran study in school. After he heard about this change, he went to the school and protested, based on the fact that the Iranian constitution guarantees the freedom to practice religion. His protest was reported to the police, who arrested him and brought him before a court on 12 October 2009, on charges of protesting.

Nadarkhani was first imprisoned in December 2006, on the charges of apostasy from Islam and evangelism to Muslims. He was released two weeks later, without being charged.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, there is officially no crime known as apostasy in the penal code (although there was a law about it prior to 1994). The last known execution for this crime was in 1990. However, despite there being no official civil law of apostasy, judges may still convict a defendant of that crime if they rule based on religious fatwas. As a result, a few people have been convicted of it, but there have been no known executions. In 2011 a man was executed in Ahvaz, Iran for blasphemy and "spreading corruption on the earth" (Mofsed-Fel-Arz) when he claimed that he was God, and attracting a "following" around himself. According to the fatwas, for a man, if convicted, the punishment is death by hanging-for a woman, it is life imprisonment. The apostate should be given three chances to repent and convert back to Islam.

After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Iranian Christians were recognized as a "protected religious minority" and according to the Constitution of Iran possess freedom of religion and even have a Member of Parliament (MP) representing them. However, evangelism and missionary work and converting Muslims to Christianity is prohibited by law, and Christians in practice may also face some discrimination as well in their lives.