{"id":445,"date":"2014-09-01T08:37:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T08:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2014\/09\/01\/irla-joins-call-for-pastor-s-release-from-iranian-prison\/"},"modified":"2014-09-01T08:37:50","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T08:37:50","slug":"irla-joins-call-for-pastor-s-release-from-iranian-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/irla-joins-call-for-pastor-s-release-from-iranian-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"IRLA Joins Call for Pastor\u2019s Release from Iranian Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

26 February 2013 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States [Ansel Oliver\/ANN]<\/span>\u00a0The International Religious Liberty Association has joined more than a dozen religious groups and human rights advocates calling for the release of American pastor Saeed Abedini, who was imprisoned in Iran in September for his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

Abedini, who periodically traveled to his native Iran to establish and manage an orphanage, was arrested and convicted of endangering national security. The Christian Post last weekreported that Abedini — a member of a non-denominational Christian church — was helping Christians in underground churches. He is now being tortured and forced to recant his Christian faith, the Post reported.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u201cIt appears Abedini is being held and persecuted solely because of his faith, and we join others in calling for his immediate release,\u201d said IRLA Secretary-General John Graz, who also serves as director for the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department of the Seventh-day Adventist world church.<\/p>\n

“Arresting someone because he changes his religion should not be accepted by those whose believe in human dignity,” Graz said. “We hope the Iranian authorities will release Pastor Abedini as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

In a February 13 letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, an informal group of NGOs and activists requested the secretary to \u201cexhaust every possible option\u201d to ensure Abedini\u2019s release and call on Iran to meet its commitment of upholding human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which clearly recognizes the fundamental human right to choose one\u2019s own religion and freedom from arbitrary detention,\u201d the letter stated.
Other signatory groups include the American Islamic Congress, Christian Solidarity International, and World Relief.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s letter came a day following a similar letter to Secretary Kerry from 84 members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Reports indicate Abedini is subject to solitary confinement, beatings and aggressive interrogations at Evin Prison, known for holding many political prisoners. Abedini was sentenced to eight years in prison at a trial last month, which numerous human rights groups said was a sham.<\/p>\n

On January 25, a State Department spokeswoman called for Abedini\u2019s release, condemning Iran\u2019s violation of human rights and freedom of religion. White House spokesman Jay Carney on January 28 issued a similar appeal.<\/p>\n

Abedini, a 32-year-old father of two, converted from Islam to Christianity in 2000. He since traveled to Iran to manage an orphanage in the northern city of Rasht.<\/p>\n

The American Center for Law and Justice has established a petition for Abedini\u2019s release and will meet with UN Human Rights officials next month. [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: tednews@ted-adventist.org
Website: www.ted-adventist.org<\/p>\n

ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify ted<\/em>NEWS whenever you publish these materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 February 2013 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States [Ansel Oliver\/ANN]<\/span>\u00a0The International Religious Liberty Association has joined more than a dozen religious groups and human rights advocates calling for the release of American pastor Saeed Abedini, who was imprisoned in Iran in September for his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

Abedini, who periodically traveled to his native Iran to establish and manage an orphanage, was arrested and convicted of endangering national security. The Christian Post last weekreported that Abedini — a member of a non-denominational Christian church — was helping Christians in underground churches. He is now being tortured and forced to recant his Christian faith, the Post reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1577],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-organisational-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}