Hamid Pourmand, a lay leader in an Iranian church and former army colonel, has been cleared of charges of apostasy and proselytizing, according to Middle East Concern (MEC) and Compass Direct.

An Islamic judge in the Gulf Coast town of Bandar-I Bushehr acquitted Pastor Pourmand on Saturday 28 May. Had he been found guilty, Pourmand would have faced the death penalty.

In an indication of the international attention that this case has attracted, news agency Compass Direct was told that the judge had said to Pourmand: "I don't know who you are, but the rest of the world does".

Pastor Pourmand became a Christian prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution, after which time conversion became illegal. He was arrested along with 85 other church leaders at the annual meeting of the Assemblies of God (AOG) Church in Iran on 9 September 2004. He was the only person not to be released shortly after being detained.

Since Iranian law states that military officers must be Muslim, Pastor Pourmand was initially charged with hiding his conversion from his army superiors. He was found guilty of this charge and sentenced to three years imprisonment despite presenting documents that proved his superiors were aware of his religion prior to promoting him to the officer ranks. Pastor Pourmand was dishonourably discharged from the army, losing his income, pension and housing for his family, although local authorities delayed evicting his wife and two teenage sons from their army housing until the end of the school year.

According to MEC, Pastor Pourmand was formally charged with apostasy and proselytising Muslims in early April 2005. He was brought before a shari'ah court in Teheran on several occasions between 13 April and 23 April, and refused to renounce his faith despite being pressured to do so. On 16 May proceedings were transferred to his hometown of Bandar-I Bushehr, where the Pastor was subsequently acquitted. However, he remains imprisoned for allegedly deceiving the Iranian armed forces about his conversion.

In the last 16 years three other Iranian church leaders have been charged with apostasy. All were convicted and sentenced to death. Pastor Hussein Soodman was hanged in 1989. Deacon Maher had a noose round his neck when he signalled his willingness to recant and was released after signing a paper to that effect in 1992. Pastor Mehdi Dibaj was condemned to death in December 1993. He was released three weeks later after a strong international outcry; only to be found murdered six months later.