Calls are intensifying for the U.S. to pressure Iran to free pastor Saeed Abedini, a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent who is being tortured in an Iranian prison and persecuted for his Christian faith.
More than 80 U.S. Congress members from both parties signed a Feb. 12 letter urging Secretary of State John Kerry to “exhaust every possible option to secure Mr. Abedini’s immediate release.”
Alabama congressmen Robert B. Aderholt, Mo Brooks, Spencer Bachus, Jeff Sessions and Mike Rogers signed the letter.
The letter joins an online petition by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) urging President Obama, Kerry and Congress to “take all available diplomatic and legislative action to pressure Iran to respect religious freedom and release Pastor Saeed.” The petition had more than 283,000 signatures as of Feb. 22.
The ACLJ’s European arm has called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to intervene. The nonprofit ACLJ is representing Abedini’s family in the U.S., where his wife, Naghmeh, and their two sons have expressed fears that she might not hear from Abedini for eight years, the length of his current sentence. Abedini has been held since September 2012 in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran.
In the letter, 84 Congress members applauded Kerry for saying that Abedini’s imprisonment represents “a violation of the universal right of freedom of religion,” and said the case is particularly troubling in light of Abedini’s U.S. citizenship.
Calls for Abedini’s release come as Iran shows no signs of relenting in its persecution of Christians and their defenders.
Pastor Benham Irani continues to languish in prison under a six-year sentence for “acting against the interests of national security,” according to International Christian Concern, a Washington advocacy group for the persecuted church.
For more information or to sign the ACLJ online petition, visit savesaeed.org. A video from advocates like Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman also can be viewed on the site.
(BP)
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