after being tried in the 11th Chamber of the Gilan Province’s Assize Court...

after being tried in the 11th Chamber of the Gilan Province’s Assize Court, Rev Youcef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death for apostasy. Nadarkhani, responsible for one of the largest Protestant communities in Rasht, was arrested on October 13, 2009, for objecting to forcing Christian school students - including his own - to read the Quran. Pastor Youcef was transferred after the verdict from Lakan prison to another place of detention, which is under the direction of the Political Police of The Islamic Republic.
Nadarkhani is the father of two children under the age of ten. The Northern Iranian pastor and later his wife, Fatemeh Passandideh, were charged with apostasy. While Passandideh was released earlier in October after spending four months in jail, according to sources in Iran and the U.S. government, Nadarkhani reportedly was orally informed that he has received the death penalty for apostasy. According to Voice of the Martyrs, if a death sentence is officially handed down and Nadarkhani is executed, his would be the first judicial execution of a Christian in Iran in two decades.