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Hanged for Being a Christian in Iran
[Telegraph-UK] Alasdair Palmer - A month ago, the Iranian parliament voted in favor of an "Islamic Penal Code" which would codify the death penalty for any male Iranian who leaves his Islamic faith. Women would get life imprisonment. The vote in favor of the new law was 196 to 7. Imposing the death penalty for changing religion blatantly violates one of the most fundamental of all human rights. The right to freedom of religion is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in the European Convention of Human Rights. It is even enshrined as Article 23 of Iran's own constitution, which states that no one may be molested simply for his beliefs. Hossein Soodmand was the last man to be executed in Iran for apostasy, the "crime" of abandoning one's religion. He had converted from Islam to Christianity in 1960, when he was 13 years old. Thirty years later, he was hanged by the Iranian authorities for that decision. His son, Ramtin, also a Christian, was arrested on August 21. It is feared he may become one of the first to be killed under Iran's new law.