Additional Name(s): هاکوپ گوچومیان

Gender: Male

Current Location: Evin Prison, Tehran

Perpetrator: Iran

Ethnic Group: Armenian

Religion or Belief: Christian – Unspecified/Other

Appeal: Rejected

Sentence: 10 Years' Imprisonment

Date of Detainment: August/15/2023

Current Status: Not Released

Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment

Reason for Persecution: Religious Belief Religious Identity

Nature of Charges: Spreading Propaganda & False or Misleading Ideas, Information, or Materials

Hakop Gochumyan

Extra Bio Info:

Hakop Gochumyan is detained for his religious belief and activity.

On August 15, 2023, authorities in Pardis arrested Gochumyan while he and his family were having dinner at a friend's home. Authorities reportedly confiscated religious materials during the arrest. Over the late summer/early fall, authorities had reportedly arrested over a hundred Christians, including Gochumyan, in a sweeping crackdown across the country.

In February 2024, judge Iman Afshari of Branch 26 of the Revolutionay Court of Tehran sentenced Gochumyan to 10 years in prison for “engaging in deviant proselytising activity that contradicts the sacred law of Islam” through alleged membership and leadership of “a network of evangelical Christianity." In June 2024, Gochumyan was informed that Iranian judicial authorities had rejected his appeal.

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