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TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- Eleven members of one of Iran's largest evangelical house church movements, who were charged with ‘action against the order of the country’ and drinking alcohol, have been acquitted by an Iranian court, BosNewsLife learned Friday, May 20.

The charges referred to their involvement in a house church meeting and to taking communion wine, Iranian Christians said earlier.

Following their arrests in April, the members of the Church of Iran were brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal in Bandar-Anzali on May 1 "for a rushed hearing where their lawyer, Mr. Seyyed Mohammed-Ali Dadkhah, hastily drafted a statement in their defense," said Britain-based advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide, which closely monitored the case.

In a written verdict issued in mid-May, the court ruled that since the eleven claimed to be conducting a Christian ceremony, their activities were covered by Article 13 of the Iranian Constitution, which allows Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians to “perform their religious rites and ceremonies, and to act according to their own canon in matters of personal affairs and religious education”.