• Source: Mehdi Dibaj

Mehdi Dibaj (1935 – June/July 1994) was an Iranian Christian convert from Shia Islam, pastor and Christian martyr.




Background


Dibaj became a Christian as a young man and joined the Presbyterian church, but years later, he joined the church of Assembly of God, the Iranian branch of the Jama'at-e Rabbani Church. After the 1979 Iranian revolution he encountered difficulties. In 1983 he was arrested and imprisoned without trial in Sari and systematically tortured. During his imprisonment he was held in solitary confinement in a dark cell a metre in height, width and depth for two years. He was finally tried by an Islamic court in Sari on 3 December 1993 and sentenced to death on charges of apostasy.
On 18 January 1994, Bernard Levin reprinted Dibaj's courtroom speech in place of his usual column in The Times as a mark of respect.
Following a worldwide outcry initiated by his friend and colleague Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr, Dibaj was finally freed in January 1994, although the death sentence was not lifted. Just three days later Haik Hovsepian Mehr was murdered. The Times article and the murder of Hovsepian Mehr was alluded to in a debate in the House of Lords on Iran, and Viscount Brentford cited Levin's comment, 'how insubstantial must the grasp on a religion be, if it has to be propped up by hangings and woundings and beatings and murderings?'
Dibaj was abducted on Friday, 24 June 1994. His body was found in a west Tehran park on Tuesday, 5 July 1994.




See also


List of kidnappings
List of solved missing person cases
List of unsolved murders




References






External links


A CRY FROM IRAN. A Documentary on the Religious Persecution in Iran. Haik Hovsepian's story, directed by his sons
Farsinet on Mehdi Dibaj
Iran Rights Memorial
Mehdi Dibaj's court room testimony at Sari, Iran 1993

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Mehdi Dibaj
• Haik Hovsepian Mehr
• Mehdi
• List of converts to Christianity from Islam
• Iranian Assemblies of God Church
• Christianity in Iran
• List of former Muslims
• Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
• List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)
• List of solved missing person cases: 1950–1999