On April 9, 2020, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director of Middle East and North Africa reported on a recent incident in Iran where 36 prisoners were suspected to have been killed by the guards because they were protesting the need for greater protections in the facility during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the report the Amnesty International representative said, “It is abhorrent that instead of responding to prisoners’ legitimate demands to be protected from COVID-19, Iranian authorities have yet again resorted to killing people to silence their concerns”.
Around the same time the Iranian regime’s judiciary finally admitted the arrest of two elite students from Sharif University of Technology after detaining them for 26 days.
These are just some of the many examples of repression and oppression that the Iranian people experience regularly under the current regime. In the last several years they have invited the partnership of the evangelical community. In 2018, Bishop Stearns led a select group of key Christian leaders to a rally for freedom in Paris, France, with over 100,000 Iranians from all over the world who are actively working to bring about a regime change and the establishment of democracy in Iran.
On Thursday, May 21st, at 1 pm EST, Iranian-American Communities all around the U.S. hosted a nationwide virtual audio/video conference call to address these recent incidents and work for change.
Bishop Robert Stearns addressed the thousands gathered on this call to bring a message of hope and to represent the evangelical community in standing with the people of Iran in their struggle for freedom.
