Anouza Reza-Bakhsh and Soheil Zagarzadeh Sani were Muslims from Iran who secretly embraced Christ. They traveled to Turkey where they were baptized by a Catholic priest, taking the names Veronika and Augustine. However, somebody reported them and in the middle of the night they were arrested and now nobody knows where they are. Under Iranian law, they may face the death penalty for apostasy:
Anousheh Reza-bakhsh and her son Soheil Zagarzadeh Sani—also known as "Veronika" and "Augustine," respectively—were arrested by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on Feb. 20 at their home and taken to an unknown location in Iran's northwestern province, according to Mohabat News, an Iranian Christian news agency.
Veronika and Augustine are "converts to the Catholic Church and were baptized in Istanbul, Turkey in August 2016," Middle East Concern reported.
A Facebook page has been created to draw the world's attention to the latest victims of Christian persecution in Iran.
The two Christians were arrested despite the fact that "both are dealing with health issues," Eliot Assoudeh, an Iranian-American academic at University of Nevada, told Fox News.
"It's been more than two weeks that Iranian authorities have not provided any news on them," he said.
At worst, the two could face the death penalty, said Julie Lenarz of the Human Security Centre in London. "Leaving Islam or converting to another religion is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran," she told Fox News, noting that years of imprisonment, harassment, and torture are also common for Christians arrested by Iran. (source, source)
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