Iranian convert deported from Turkey

Iranian Christian Mehran Shamloui has been deported from Turkey, having fled there to escape a 10-year prison sentence for involvement in a “house church”.

Mehran, a 37-year-old convert from Islam, fled Iran earlier this year after he and two other Christian converts were sentenced on 8 March to prison terms totalling more than 40 years on charges concerning their beliefs and participation in worship meetings.

However, Turkish authorities arrested Mehran and flew him back to Mashhad, north-eastern Iran, where he was detained by police.

Iranian Christian convert Mehran Shamloui [Image credit: Article 18]

Mehran, along with Narges Nasri and Abbas Soori, was arrested during a series of raids by intelligence agents in November 2024. They were sentenced on 8 March 2025, and on 26 April, the appeal court announced that the Christians’ appeals against their convictions had been rejected.

It is now understood that all three had fled the country by the time the rejections were issued, when they were given five days’ notice to report to Evin Prison, Tehran, to begin their sentences.

Mehran was sentenced to more than 10 years’ imprisonment. The term comprises eight years for “propaganda activities” and two years and eight months for belonging to an “opposition group”. He was also fined 250 million tomans (£2,290; $2,750; €2,519).

It is not clear at this stage whether Mehran will start serving his sentence at Evin Prison. Numerous prisoners were transferred to other prisons after Evin was bombed in an Israeli airstrike on 23 June.