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 365 Days in Detention for American Pastor in Iran

7/28/2013 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) continues to call for the release of American-Iranian national Saeed Abedini. July 28^th marks one year since Saeed was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. 365 days later Pastor Saeed remains in Tehran’s Evin prison serving a sentence of eight years for no reason other than his faith in Christ.
Since his arrest Saeed has endured abuse and harassment, including both physical and psychological torture. In a letter Saeed was able to send to his wife in March he wrote, “After weeks of being in solitary confinement in Evin prison, I also got to see my face in the mirror of an elevator. […] I said hi to the person staring back at me because I did not even recognize myself.” It was not until the past few days that Saeed received medical care for the injuries he has received while incarcerated.
Pastor Saeed, who was born in Iran and became a believer in 2000, had worked among the Iranian evangelical church in the early 2000s. He was detained while in Iran in 2009 and only released on the condition that he no longer worked with the house churches. He was encouraged by the government to engage in humanitarian work. Saeed had returned to Iran to work on a government approved project to build orphanages. It was while doing this work that he was detained on July 28, 2012 while at his parents’ house in Iran. Saeed had his passport confiscated, was placed under house arrest, and forbidden from leaving the country.
Saeed did not attempt to flee the country because, “he believed in obeying the law of the land as long it didn’t interfere with him sharing Christ,” Saeed’s wife Naghmeh said in a recent interview with ICC. He told the government that he would not do anything illegal, but would stay and stand up for his beliefs.
In September, he was transferred by the Revolutionary Guard to Iran’s notorious Evin prison. Evin is known as the place where the government sends prisoners who are seen as a threat and who they want to break. On January 27, 2013 he was sentenced by Iran’s “hanging judge” Pir-Abassi to eight years in prison.
Katrina Lantos Swett, co-chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, said, “The trial and conviction of Pastor Abedini represent an outrageous miscarriage of justice and  yet one more damning piece of evidence pointing to the rampant denial of religious freedom and the absence of any semblance of rule of law in Iran. ”
Through the #SaveSaeed campaign and other efforts, Saeed’s case has been brought to international attention. His case has been acknowledged by the United Nations Human Rights Council, United States Congress, and the Secretary of State of the United States. Efforts remain on-going to advocate for the release of Pastor Saeed.
Todd Daniels, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “We join with others in the international community in calling for the immediate and unconditional release of American citizen Saeed Abedini. We urge the Iranian government – and President-elect Hassan Rouhanı – to act in keeping with its own constitution as well as to uphold their obligations as a signatory of the ICCPR which demands respect for the basic rights of all individuals, including its religious minorities. The unlawful imprisonment, conviction, and sentencing of Saeed Abedini to eight years in prison is an assault on the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms to which all people are entitled.” 

For interviews, contact Todd Daniels, Regional Manager for the Middle East: RM-ME@persecution.org

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