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American Pastor Has Been Detained in Iran’s ‘Notoriously Brutal’ Evin Prison for 3 Months

Dec. 19, 2012 9:28pm Erica Ritz

Iran Detains American Pastor and Convert Saeed Abedini in Evin Prison

Saeed Abedini is seen with his family. (FoxNews.com)

An American pastor who was raised in Iran but granted U.S. citizenship is currently being detained in Iran’s most horrifying prison, Fox News reports. A place where political dissidents tend to end up, the prisoners are often scooped up without legitimate cause, before being beaten (and if you’re a woman, raped) repeatedly.

He has awaited “trial” since late September, but like with former U.S. Marine Jon Hammar– who has been imprisoned in Mexico since August on what his parents describe as “trumped-up” charges– the U.S. State Department has made no real progress in rescuing him.

32-year-old Rev. Saeed Abedini is a convert to Christianity, making him an apostate and therefore marked for death by the hardliners in Iran. However, after he had an issue at the airport in 2009– where he was detained and interrogated– Abedini signed an agreement with the Iranian government that if he did not try to spread Christianity in the country, they would leave him alone.

Abedini’s wife Naghmeh told Fox News that he has held up his end of the bargain, and has been to Iran 9 times in the intervening years without significant problems. Before 2009, he worked ardently to establish places where converts could pray in safety, but on his trips back now, he is tending a humanitarian effort to build an orphanage.

Fox News continues:

After a short visit to a nearby country, Abedini was traveling back into Iran to catch his flight back to the U.S. when members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard stopped his bus near the Turkey-Iran border and pulled Abedini from the bus, confiscating his passports and subjecting him to intense interrogation, according to his wife.

After weeks under house arrest and many calls to Iran’s passport control office about the status of his confiscated passport, Abedini was told that his case has been referred to the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian government’s elite military force.

On Sept. 26, five men kicked open the door of Abedini’s parents’ residence in Tehran where they collected all communications devices and arrested him while placing the rest of his family members, who are also Christians converts from Islam, under house arrest.

The family remains under house arrest, according to Naghmeh. [Emphasis added]

Abedini hasn’t been formally charged, but his “offense” is something along the lines of espionage and threatening national security, his wife says.

“When he became a Christian, he became a criminal in his own country,” she told Fox News.

Back when Abedini was working on spreading Christianity, his rapid success is believed to have posted a threat to the theocratic regime.

“It was just growing so fast. They see the underground churches as a threat and they see Christianity as a tool from the West to undermine them,” Naghmeh added.

And Abedini has a remarkable history– his wife says Christianity actually “saved his life.” When he was still in high school, Abedini was taken to a mosque and trained to be a suicide bomber. The more he trained– understandably– the more depressed he became.

Fox News continues:

The Iranian government offered bail in the amount of 500 million toman, or roughly $410,000. Abedini’s family has prepared the bail documents many times already but have not been successful in having it accepted or approved, they say.

Just this week they prepared yet again the bail documents but were told they were not going to be accepted. When they inquired, they were told, “Boro Gomsho!” or get lost.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which worked tirelessly to free pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who faced a similar situation, is taking Abedini’s case.

“You have a situation of arbitrary detention here. Iran is violating its own constitution and its international obligations. As citizens of the world, we need to wake up to these violations. Iran needs to be exposed for its violation of these laws,” the ACLJ’s Tiffany Barrans said.

Fox News adds that, while the family tried to keep the matter under wraps for Abedini’s safety before, they are relieved that the ACLJ will now be putting increased pressure on the government, members of Congress, and the United Nations.

National Review Online says everything in its conclusion: “Simply put, Iran cannot be permitted to imprison and abuse American citizens.”

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Comments (20)

Jamboree
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 2:54pm
Please continue to report on this. There is more recent news posted by his wife on his FB page. He is not free yet. http://www.facebook.com/PastorSaeedAbedini

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rpw4547
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 2:09pm
If we cannot teach Christianity in Iran then they should not be able to teach the Islam (false religion) in America. If you are Christian, Obama doesn’t care about you, he is of the Islam faith. Why else would he skip the prayer breakfast and cover Christian symbols in colleges when running for election.

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The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 6:55pm
Damn Iran.

Hey, that’s kinda catchy.

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zoro51
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:16am
the white house is DEAFINLY silent on this one yet evita obama sheds FAKE tears and uses the shootings to gain ground on the fiscal cliff YET FAILS to have american citizens released… but SUCKS UP TO THE MURDERING MUSLUMS.. OH wait OBAMA IS A MUSLUM….. cant forget that.. what a WASTE OBAMA IS.. im glad i voted romney…

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davecorkery
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:36am
Don’t worry. He has baby jeebus by his side. He won’t be beaten or raped. Even if he is, well, jeebus suffered too.

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ScarletRose
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 9:02am
“PASTOR” IN IRAN???? LOL!

OR complicit bait for kidnap ransom for Islam terrorism??????????????

Stop American complicity in $$$Funnelling to Islam terroism by REFUSING to help get them back out of Iranian “PRISONS”.

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LONGHOTSUMMER
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:31am
Why sure they can. Look at who’s in the White House, and Putin’s his buddy on top of it. It’s enough to make you sick.

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SaturdaysWarrior76
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 4:01am
The White House sent a Navy SEAL to rescue Dr. Dilip Joseph after he’d been held captive for only 3 days.. yet this Reverend is still being held after 3 months? What’s up with that? Here is the story from the Blaze about the Doctor’s rescue:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/u-s-service-member-dies-rescuing-american-hostage-from-the-taliban/

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Totally Domestic
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 1:06am
We CAN pray Rev. Saeed Abedini out just like we did pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who said,”I am alive because of God’s will and your prayers.”. Also, lets not forget Asia Bibi in jail in Pakistan for her faith in Jesus Christ.

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KidCharlemagne
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 12:56am
“After a short visit to a nearby country, Abedini was traveling back into Iran to catch his flight back to the U.S.”
=================

This is what probably sealed his fate……

If that “short visit to a nearby country” happened to be Turkey, then I’d be willing to bet that Iran probably instantly became suspicious that he might be CIA instead….

A U.S. citizen that shows up in Iran and then suddenly makes a quick trip to Turkey and then back to Iran? That would certainly raise all kinds of red flags….

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- Walkabout
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:06pm
  Don;t know about the CIA angle.
  
  I did look a the picture. He has a Persian name & was born of Muslims parents. He is from the Middle East. Yet, I have absolutely no fear of him.
  
  It is not their skin color, parentage, place of birth. It is their ethos. His is Christian. I have no fear of him.
  
  Report this comment
universalphilos
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 12:52am
Although it is uncertain of what this message was speaking on January 6, 1984, spiritual messengers of God do tell of America’s value in being one nation under God and they talk of prisons in Iran. They continued: “He deserves no praise, for he is plotting now to overthrow your country. Your country is insignificant to us. What is significant to us is you are a country under the Lord, thy God, and sworn to the allegiance that all men were created equal. That debt the Lord intends to collect. This same person shall see, if he can, the death of many, many of God’s people. For he now sees that the pact with Israel and Egypt is nothing but a piece of paper to be thrown away.
Look deeply into him; see where the money came from.
We asked you this question. If you are Black, you walk out of the prisons of the Islams, from Iran to Syria. If you were of any other nationality, not to be Moslem, would you have walked so easily from these lands? Remember Tehran, and how all Blacks were released, but not the women, or not those of Mexican descent, or any other descent. This was an arrangement that Israel might be sold upon the auction block.”
http://www.angelfire.com/in4/aup_messiah/1984January06.audio.html

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- Totally Domestic
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 1:11am
  I can’t make sense of your comment.
  
  Report this comment
- girlnurse
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 3:02am
  Seriously UNIVERSAL…I even tried to read your link and it makes no sense. Im kinda worried about you…
  
  Report this comment
wzanesdad
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 12:41am
The weak administration we have now can’t even get one inocent marine out of prison in a country that is suppose to like us…mexico….why would anyone think he can do anything with a christian in iran?

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- Totally Domestic
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 1:22am
  But they pull out all the stops to be sure that Nidal Hasan (Ft. Hood killer) can get a new unbiased judge so that he can keep his beard. Goes to prove they can DO something when they want to.
  
  Report this comment
- wzanesdad
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:16am
  I agree……I think his actions show he is either completely terrified of islam, or completely supportive of it.
  
  Report this comment
rwinestock
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 11:55pm
Did you notice the writer of this article gave away that he was helping setup underground churches there? Of course he was high profile and she should be fired and thrown as a sacrifice exchange for him. What an idiot! For headlines, you may have sealed his imprisonment. You don’t think Iraninan government officials read?

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- Chet Hempstead
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 12:06am
  More attentive readers will have noticed that was a quote from the man’s wife referring to the time before he made an agreement with the Iranian government not to proselytize within their borders.
  
  Report this comment
FierceMomma77
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 11:52pm
Because he is a Christian, he will be ignored by the media, UN and our government. The time has arrived when Christians will begin to see increasing persecution.

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