Mehdi Dibaj
Mehdi Dibaj (1935 – June/July 1994) was an Iranian Christian convert from Shia Islam, pastor and Christian martyr.
Dibaj became a Christian as a young man and joined the Jama'at-e Rabbani Church, the Iranian branch of the Assemblies of God. After the 1979 Iranian revolution he encountered difficulties. In 1983 he was arrested and imprisoned without trial in Sari and systematically tortured. He was finally tried by an Islamic court in Sari on December 3, 1993 and sentenced to death on charges of apostasy.
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.[1] Just three days later Haik Hovsepian Mehr was abducted and murdered.[citation needed]
Dibaj was abducted on Friday, June 24, 1994.[citation needed] His body was found in a west Tehran park on Tuesday, July 5, 1994.[1]
References
- ^ a b "Mehdi Dibaj profile". www.iranrights.org. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
External links
- 1935 births
- 1994 deaths
- Iranian murder victims
- Iranian Pentecostals
- Converts to Protestantism from Shia Islam
- People murdered in Iran
- Persecution by Muslims
- Persecution of Christians
- 20th-century Protestant martyrs
- 20th-century Protestant religious leaders
- Iranian prisoners sentenced to death
- Prisoners sentenced to death by Iran
- Assemblies of God people
- Iranian former Shia Muslims