Tehran, (AKI) - An Iranian army colonel who many years ago converted to Christianity has been summoned to appear before a Tehran court on charges of apostasy, that is publicly rejecting the faith in which one has been raised. Hamid Pourmand, 47, is the first Iranian for more than ten years to be tried for this crime, which carries the death penalty. Now retired, Pourmand is a pastor with the protestant Assembly of God faith in the city of Bushehr, the site of Iran's main nuclear reactor.
Pourmand was arrested in September 2004, at Karaj near Tehran, after a police raid during a general council of the church to which he belongs. Of the 86 people arrested, he is the only one not to have been released in the following days.

Last February, the former army official was sentenced to three years in jail by a military tribunal on charges of having concealed his conversion to Christianity - 25 years ago - from his superiors.

Under the current law, non-Muslims may not rise to the rank of officers in the armed forces or police. During that trial, Pourmand declared that his superiors had at the time been informed by letter of his conversion, but the military judges threw out his statement.

The court deprived him of his rank and his pension and ordered his wife and children to immediately leave the family home, which belonged to the army.

The Revolutionary Court that must now try Pourmand could sentence him to the death penalty if he is found guilty of apostasy.

According to unofficial reports in recent years the number of people converting to Christianity has risen significantly. This is attributed in part to the illegal preaching activity of the protestant congregations, which are funded by American churches. Nearly all the 25 Iranian satellite TV channels that transmit from the US or Europe broadcast segments that are produced by Christian churches.
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