Mehdi Dibaj

{{Short description|Iranian Pentecostal pastor (1935-1994)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Mehdi Dibaj | image= Mehdi_Dibaj.jpg | caption = Mehdi Dibaj | birthname = | birth_date = 1935 | birth_place = Iran | death_date = 5 July 1994 | death_place = | education = | occupation = | alias = | title = | family = | spouse = | domesticpartner = | children = | relatives = | credits = }}

'''Mehdi Dibaj''' (1935 – June/July 1994) was an Iranian Pentecostal Protestant convert from Shia Islam and pastor. He belonged to the Iranian Assemblies of God Church, a branch of the Assemblies of God, derived from the Assemblies of God USA. After the Iranian Revolution, he was imprisoned without trial and was subsequently setenced to death for apostasy from Islam. His case gained international media attention and he was subsequently released by the Iranian government. However, he was subsequently abducted and killed in Tehran. He is considered a martyr by the Assemblies of God.

==Background== Dibaj became a Protestant as a young man and joined the Presbyterian church, but years later, he joined the church of Assembly of God, the Iranian Assemblies of God Church, a branch of the Assemblies of God, derived from the Assemblies of God USA. After the 1979 Iranian revolution he encountered difficulties. In 1983 he was arrested and imprisoned without trial in Sari and systematically tortured. During his imprisonment he was held in solitary confinement in a dark cell a metre in height, width and depth for two years.<ref name =indie>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-mehdi-dibaj-1412186.html |title=''Obituary: Mehdi Dibaj'' |publisher=Independent |date=1994-07-07 |accessdate=2019-01-02 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315050315/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-mehdi-dibaj-1412186.html |archivedate=2017-03-15}}</ref> He was finally tried by an Islamic court in Sari on 3 December 1993 and sentenced to death on charges of apostasy.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

On 18 January 1994, Bernard Levin, a prominent veteran British Jewish journalist, reprinted Dibaj's courtroom speech in place of his usual column in the London-based newspaper The Times as a mark of respect.<ref>{{cite news |first=Bernard | last=Levin |title= Written Defence of the Rev. Mehdi Dibaj Delivered to the Sari Court of Justice |work=The Times |date=1994-01-15}}</ref>

Following a worldwide outcry initiated by his friend and colleague Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr, Dibaj was finally freed in January 1994, although the death sentence was not lifted.<ref name=iranrights /> Just three days later Haik Hovsepian Mehr was murdered.<ref name= AI>{{cite web|url= https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/184000/mde130071994en.pdf|title= Fear for the lives of church leaders|publisher=Amnesty International Bulletin UA 262/94 | date=1994-06-06 |accessdate=2019-01-02|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102143750/https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/184000/mde130071994en.pdf |archivedate=2019-01-02 }}</ref><ref name=hansard/> The Times article and the murder of Hovsepian Mehr was alluded to in a debate in the British House of Lords on Iran, and Viscount Brentford cited Levin's comment, 'how insubstantial must the grasp on a religion be, if it has to be propped up by hangings and woundings and beatings and murderings?'<ref name=hansard>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1994/mar/03/iran |title= House of Lords debate on Iran |publisher=Hansard |volume=552 | pages=1183–204 |date=1994-03-03 |accessdate=2019-01-02}}</ref>

Dibaj was abducted on Friday, 24 June 1994.<ref name= indie/> His body was found in a west Tehran park on Tuesday, 5 July 1994.<ref name=iranrights>{{cite web|title=Mehdi Dibaj profile|url=http://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/12920/mehdi-dibaj|publisher=www.iranrights.org|accessdate=14 July 2016|archive-date=16 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816202920/http://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/12920/mehdi-dibaj|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * [http://www.acryfromiran.com/ A CRY FROM IRAN. A Documentary on the Religious Persecution in Iran. Haik Hovsepian's story, directed by his sons] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20150907023301/http://www.farsinet.com/dibaj/ Farsinet on Mehdi Dibaj] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20170702220223/https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/12920/mehdi-dibaj Iran Rights Memorial] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20150411043557/https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2015/testimony-defence-mehdi-dibaj/ Mehdi Dibaj's court room testimony at Sari, Iran 1993]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dibaj, Mehdi}} Category:1935 births Category:1990s missing person cases Category:1994 deaths Category:20th-century Protestant martyrs Category:20th-century Protestant religious leaders Category:Assemblies of God pastors Category:Assemblies of God people Category:Converts to Pentecostalism from Shia Islam Category:Formerly missing Iranian people Category:Iranian former Shia Muslims Category:Iranian murder victims Category:Iranian Pentecostals Category:Iranian prisoners sentenced to death Category:Kidnapped Iranian people Category:Missing person cases in Iran Category:People convicted of apostasy in Iran Category:People murdered in Iran Category:Persecution of Christians in Iran Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by Iran Category:Unsolved murders in Iran