E/CN.4/1995/91 page 52 disappeared on 19 January 1994 after leaving his home to meet someone at Mehrabad airport in Tehran. According to some reports, Bishop Hovsepian was taken to a government office. On 30 January 1994, the police told Bishop Hovsepian’s family that his body had been found, riddled with knife wounds, on 20 January 1994, on the old Shemran road in the Tehran suburbs. They stated that the victim’s body had already been buried and his family was only able to identify him through a photograph. The Bishop, who was aged 49, was married and had four children. He had conducted a successful international campaign to obtain the release of Reverend Mehdi Debbaj and distributed a report on violations of religious freedom in Iran. He had also refused to sign a statement, required by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance, indicating, in his capacity as a Christian in the Islamic Republic of Iran, that Christians were able to exercise all constitutional rights. Bishop Hovsepian’s murder is reportedly linked to the latter events. The Special Rapporteur has also received information to the effect that Reverend Tatavous (Tateos) Mikaelian, successor to Bishop Haid Hovesepian Mehr as President of the Council of Protestant Churches and former Secretary-General of the Iranian Bible Society, disappeared after leaving home on 29 June. His body was reportedly identified in a city morgue on 2 July 1994 by his son. He had been shot three times in the head. According to the information received, Reverend Mehdi Debbaj (cited in document E/CN.4/1992/52), a former Muslim who converted to Christianity and was sentenced to death for apostasy and imprisoned without trial for nine years, was released on 16 January on condition that he remained available for further investigations if necessary. However, the charge against him was not withdrawn, and fresh accusations of ’religious espionage’ and defamation of Ayatollah Knomeini were made against him. His wife also reportedly received threats of stoning to death if she did not agree to recant her faith. Under coercion she divorced her husband and married a Muslim extremist. Her four children were taken in care by the church, where they remain. Reverend Mehdi Debbaj allegedly disappeared on 24 June 1994. According to information received, Reverend Mehdi Debbaj, along with a group of Christian believers, had left Tehran on 20 June, to attend a Christian retreat in Karaj. Four days later, he reportedly left on his own to return to Tehran to join his family in celebrating the birthday of his daughter and was found murdered on 5 July 1994. The situation of Reverend Edmond and of Mr. Mohamad Sepehr, a Muslim who converted to Christianity, described in the communication sent to the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 8 December 1993, remains unchanged. Others The Special Rapporteur has received information to the effect that an Iranian writer, Mr. Ali Akbar Saïdi Sirjani, was arrested in mid-March 1994 by the Iranian police and officially charged in April with several serious offences, namely, drug trafficking, links with