Tehran’s Court of Appeals upheld the five-year prison sentences of Mohammad Vafadar, Kamal Naamanian, Hossein Kadivar, Khalil Dehghanpour, Behnam Akhlaghi, Mehdi Khatibi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Mohammad (Shahrooz) Eslamdoust, and Abdolreza Ali Haghnejad. They are all Christian converts and members of the Church of Iran in Rasht. They were arrested during raids on their homes and house churches in 2019. Branch 28 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, presided by Judge Mohammad Moghise, sentenced them to five years’ imprisonment each on the charge of “congregation and collusion with intent to disrupt national security.” Neither the defendants nor their attorneys were permitted to attend the appeal hearing.