Two UN experts have demanded that Iran provide an explanation for the confiscation of the country’s oldest Protestant church.

Reports that Iran had confiscated St. Peter Evangelical Church in Tehran and evicted the Christians living there emerged in July.

The complex covers about 10 acres, or approximately 4 hectares, and includes residential buildings, two schools, as well as the offices of the Bible Society and the Council of Evangelical Churches of Iran, which owns the property. About 20 families belonging to Iran’s historic Assyrian and Armenian Christian communities were evicted.

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran Mai Sato and Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Nazila Ghanea sent a formal request to the Iranian government regarding the incident on July 10. However, under UN protocols, the information was made public only now, 60 days after the letter was sent.

The UN experts expressed concern that “these developments do not appear to be an isolated incident, but rather the culmination of a years-long pattern of measures targeting the Christian community in the Islamic Republic of Iran and, in particular, Christian worship conducted in Persian.”

They noted that other church properties across the country had also been confiscated, closed, demolished or repurposed, while Iran had not clarified whether any compensation or redress had been provided to the affected Christian communities.

The special rapporteurs said that since sending their initial request, they had received no answers to their questions from Iran, while St. Peter Evangelical Church is currently being guarded by regime forces.

“Such forced evictions are incompatible with international human rights law. Moreover, these measures have deprived a longstanding community of both housing and a place of worship,” they said.

Earlier, we reported that Iranian Christians could face prosecution for communicating with believers abroad and for participating in online services. Human rights advocates raised the concern over a new bill in Iran.

As LF reported, according to the latest report by the U.S.-based organisation International Christian Concern (ICC), 380 million Christians worldwide face persecution.