The Iranian legal system continues to impress us with the wisdom and mercy of Koranic justice:
After months of solitary confinement, Iranian Christian pastor Hamid Pourmand now finds himself incarcerated in a group cell with other political prisoners at Tehran's maximum-security Evin Prison.
A former army colonel who converted from Islam to Christianity nearly 25 years ago, Pourmand was found guilty by a military court on Feb. 16 of "deceiving" the Iranian armed forces about his faith. The Islamic regime in Iran has made it illegal for a non-Muslim citizen to serve as a military officer, since that puts him in a position of authority over Muslim soldiers.
Although the accused Christian produced documents proving that his military superiors knew about his conversion, the court declared them false and handed Pourmand a maximum penalty of three years in jail.
Sources inside Iran remain fearful for Pourmand's life, despite the written three-year jail sentence. "Three years has no meaning, because in a political jail like Evin, they can keep them for many more years, or they can even kill them," one stated.
Hamid Pourmand's life is in jeopardy, but it could be worse. He should be thankful he's not a thirteen year old rape victim, for instance. The Iranians condemn these poor waifs to flogging or death for the crime of seducing the rapist. Allah might beam with pride at the moral purity and crystalline logic of Iranian justice, but for our part, we think Allah would prefer to see the people rise up and kick these cruel, narrow-minded mullahs in their holy posteriors.