A Christian Martyr in Iran
I did not care about my Islam. However, in the middle of terrible
Bahman Aghai Diba PhD International Law
Persian Journal
2006/03/24
The old man had a calm face. He kept smiling mildly
and looked around with appreciation. I had not met
him before and this was the first time (and the last
time) that he was walking with "us". I mean with our
group of prisoners in the notorious Evin prison of Iran.
Dr. Bahman It was one of good days that the prison administer had
Aghai Diba let our group to work as construction workers in a
remote section of the prison. The old man that was walking with us
that day was "Ke-shish (Christian Clergy ) Dibaji".
He was a Christian priest and his crime was changing his religion
from Islam to Christianity. Dibaji had not only changed his religion,
but as a clergy, he had tried to invite others to his religion. He had
worked in places like north and west of Iran and even he had made
travels to Afghanistan for preaching.
He was not one of my cellmates, and I noticed him because he was
walking as person who was very satisfied and content. He was telling
things slowly to himself that I could not understand at first. Later I
came to know that he was reciting Christian hymns in Farsi and
English. I asked him "why are you so joyful?" He said I am praying to
God that has made this beautiful day possible for me. Look around
you isn't it beautiful? The flowers, the sight of mountains and the
huge trees are around us, and I am in the company of nice people. I
am thankful to God.
Assdollah Lajevardi
1 2
Of course, I did not care about his Christianity, as Butcher of Evin
conditions that existed there, and our lives were under the control of
the Assdollah Lajevardi, the Bucher of Evin and his blood thirsty
assistant (Karbelai, the administrative head of Evin who was called
"Pishva" like Fuehrer) it was interesting for me that a person can have
such a spirit. I felt that his feelings were respectful and he was
spreading a positive wave.
That day I had my only serious quarrel with another fellow prisoner.
The fellow prisoner was pretending that he was very Islamic and this
new guy (Dibaji) was Najes (religiously unclean). I knew the
protesting prisoner very well. He was a person that his personal life
was only the story of drinking alcoholic beverages, cheating his wife
and so on. I was famous among the prisoners as a calm person, but
that day I attacked the prisoner who pretended to be very Islamic and
I told him that if he did not shut up, I would report all of his past
actions to the prison authorities. He was so shocked from my reaction
and we never talked with each other for several years.
Dibaji and I were both under heavy sentences and we waiting for a
court that we knew it would not be fair. He was accused of "Ertedad",
or changing religion from Islam to something else. The sentence for
such a "crime", as far as men were concerned, was execution. As for
the women, according to the religious rulings, the concerned female
should be kept in prison and tortured five times a day, on the daily
prayer times, until such time that she gives up her new religion and
returns to Islam.
Dibaji was released from prison after a while, but it did not take much
time that they found his body in the forests near Tehran. He was
clearly tortured and murdered.

I think he was one of the first persons that were killed according to
the program of the Serial Murders orchestrated by the Iranian
intelligence officials.