Iran Christian Prisoners Get Rare 10-Day Holiday Leave

A prison guard stands along a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison, Iran, June 13, 2006. (Reuters Photo)
A prison guard stands along a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison, Iran, June 13, 2006. (Reuters Photo)
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Iran Christian Prisoners Get Rare 10-Day Holiday Leave

A prison guard stands along a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison, Iran, June 13, 2006. (Reuters Photo)
A prison guard stands along a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison, Iran, June 13, 2006. (Reuters Photo)

The head of Iran's judiciary on Sunday granted Christian prisoners 10 days' liberty to spend the holidays with families, in a rare move towards the minority community.

Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei instructed authorities across the country to issue the dispensation, according to the judiciary's Mizan Online website.

"The decision is to mark the New Year 2022 and the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ," the website said.

Mizan Online did not say how many Christian prisoners will benefit from the furlough, or when the 10-day period starts.

It said, however, that inmates convicted for undermining security, organized crime, abductions, armed robberies and those sentenced to death would be exempted.

According to local media, Christians represent just one percent of Iran's total population of 83 million, the majority of whom are Shiite Muslims.

Most Christians in Iran are Armenians who celebrate Christmas on January 6, the day of the Epiphany.

Around that time of year, some shops in Tehran and major cities put up decorations, including Christmas trees while people dressed up as Santa Claus stand outside stores.

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei often grants amnesty to prisoners or reduces their sentences to mark Muslim holidays.

But it is rare for Iranian authorities to announce such measures concerning members of the Islamic republic's Christian minority.

This year Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited the Tehran home of the family of a Christian Armenian "martyr" who died in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war on Christmas Eve, the official IRNA news agency reported.



Beijing Rejects Ukraine’s Claim Significant Numbers of Chinese Troops Are Fighting Alongside Russia 

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Beijing Rejects Ukraine’s Claim Significant Numbers of Chinese Troops Are Fighting Alongside Russia 

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)

Ukraine’s claim that significant numbers of Chinese nationals are fighting alongside Russia’s invading army is “totally unfounded,” a Beijing official said Wednesday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Tuesday that the Ukrainian military had captured two Chinese men fighting alongside the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region and had information that “significantly more” are with Russian forces.

It was the first time that Ukraine had made such a claim about Chinese fighters on its soil amid Russia’s almost three-year invasion.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in Beijing that China has played a “constructive role in politically resolving the Ukraine crisis.”

Lin told a daily news briefing Wednesday that “the Chinese government always asks Chinese citizens to stay away from conflict zones, avoid getting involved in any form of armed conflict, and especially refrain from participating in any party’s military operations.”

His comments appeared to indicate that the captured Chinese had joined Russia’s ranks on their own initiative.

China has provided strong diplomatic support for Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. Beijing has also offered an economic lifeline through the trade in energy and consumer goods, but has not knowingly provided Russia with troops, weapons or military expertise.

It put forward a vague peace plan that was swiftly dismissed by most observers.

Previously, Ukraine and the United States have said that thousands of North Korean troops have helped Russia under an agreement between the Kremlin and the government in Pyongyang.

Both Russia and Ukraine allow foreign soldiers to enlist.

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a briefing in Washington on Tuesday that the US was “aware” of the reports that Chinese citizens fighting on behalf of Russia were caught in Ukraine and called them “disturbing.”

“China is a major enabler of Russia in the war in Ukraine,” Bruce said. China provides nearly 80% of the dual-use items Russia needs to sustain the war, she claimed.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent years amid disputes over trade, technology and geopolitical competition.

The Kremlin has effectively rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting in Ukraine. The Kyiv government has consented to it. Both sides are believed to be readying spring-summer military campaigns.

In the meantime, both countries have kept fighting a war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and targeted each other with long-range strikes.

The city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk endured a “massive drone attack” overnight, regional head Vadym Filashkin said, injuring an 11-year-old girl, her mother and her grandmother.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 55 Shahed and decoy drones at the country overnight.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 158 Ukrainian drones over 11 Russian regions overnight but reported no casualties or damage.

Several Russian regions temporarily suspended flights at their airports because of the attack, however, and some Ukrainian drones reached Russia’s Orenburg region in the southern Urals located nearly 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, the Defense Ministry said.