Despite being found not guilty by an Iranian court in November 2021, eight Christians have been forced to attend re-education classes.

According to Premier Christian News, the men were charged with distributing propaganda material against the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, the court found that though the eight had converted to Christianity, they were not distributing Christian materials.

Though it is illegal for an Islamic person to convert to Christianity in Iran, it is not a criminal offence.

Despite the court’s ruling, the extremist Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the country’s secret police, has ordered the men to attend 10 Islamic re-education classes run by Muslim clerics.

Mansour Borji, who works with Open Doors, said the Revolutionary Guard has played a major role recently in the crackdown on the rapidly growing house church movement in Iran.

“Since Iran’s supreme leader has defined the growth of Christian house-church movement as a deviant movement threatening the existence of the regime, Borji said the “Revolutionary Guards have now been mandated to crackdown on the growth of Christianity in the country in parallel to – and sometimes in competition with – the country’s intelligence ministry.”

READ: Eight Iranian Christians have been forced to attend ‘re-education classes’