Elnaz Ghorbani, a Christian convert, summoned to Qarchak prison to serve a five-year sentence

Elnaz Ghorbani, a Christian convert, has been summoned to Qarchak prison in Varamin to serve a five-year prison sentence. The enforcement notice reached her on Saturday, 10 October 2026, and she was given five days to report to this women's prison.

The sentence was issued in May–June 2025 by Branch 1 of the Varamin Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Ashkan Ramesh. The charges the Islamic Republic's judiciary has brought against her are "insulting the leader", "deviant educational and propaganda activity contrary to Islamic law", "forming a network to promote Christianity" and "publishing false computer content". HRANA, the Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran, published the news citing a report by Mohabat News.

Home search and seizure of Bibles

In late September–October 2024, intelligence agents of the Revolutionary Guard Corps went to the Tehran home of Elnaz Ghorbani's mother and, after searching it, seized a laptop, mobile phones, Christian teaching booklets, three copies of the Bible and a cross. She was interrogated at home for hours that same day.

Her sentence was issued under Article 500 bis of the Islamic Penal Code, a provision that criminalises religious activity outside the government's official framework by labelling it "deviant activity".

Repression of religious minorities

The Islamic Republic does not recognise conversion from Islam to Christianity and sentences Christian converts to long prison terms for holding house churches and owning a Bible. This summons comes amid a new wave of crackdowns on other religious minorities, including 34 security and judicial actions against Baha'is in Yazd in less than seven months and the sentencing of a Baha'i couple from Yazd to prison.

Owning three copies of the Bible and a cross at home has brought Elnaz Ghorbani five years in prison.