Nearly two weeks ago Pastor Saeed Abedini and his family passed the 200th day of his imprisonment in Iran's Evin prison.  He is being held there not because he stole something or assaulted someone.  He is being held in the hell hole of Evin prison not because he illegally entered Iran or made statements against the Iranian government or the Ayatollahs.

Pastor Abedini is being held, beaten, denied basic health care for his injuries and subjected to physical and psychological intimidation and torture because of his thoughts and beliefs.  Because those beliefs aren't shared by the government of Iran Pastor Abedini is not allowed to hold them himself.

He is accused of, and convicted in an Iranian court where proper legal counsel of his choosing was denied him, sharing his beliefs during the period of 2001 through 2005. From the time he started to hold his beliefs until it became illegal for him to share them. That was in 2005 when the current government came into power.


It is important to understand that it was legal under Iranian law for Pastor Abedini to share his faith between 2001 and 2005. When the law was changed Pastor Abedini, out of respect for those in authority, stopped his activities and complied with the law.  Now, when he was arrested in August 2012, the charges against him were not for activities he was currently doing, that is working to build an approved orphanage. No, those charges were for activities that he had done when those activities were legal.

Pastor Abedini is an American citizen. He moved to the United States, married and American citizen, Naghmeh, and in 2010 obtained his US citizenship. He loves his new country and the freedoms it gives him to worship as he pleases.  At the same time he loves the  people of Iran, his country of birth.  His family, his parents, his siblings and extended family still live in Iran and he would not abandon them.

Pastor Abedini needs his fellow citizens of his adopted nation to stand with him and fight for him. His Iranian family and friends cannot, if they do they too could find themselves in Evin Prison.  But we, his fellow Americans can speak out, we can write our politicians and lobby them to work harder for his release.  We can speak out by calling and writing news outlets, by signing petitions like the one at SaveSaeed.org and writing letters to Pastor Saeed that will be seen by his guards and fellow prisoners and the leaders of Iran. Letters that will by their presence tell those who hold his freedom in their hands that Pastor Saeed is not alone.  He is not forgotten.  And the injustice that is being done to him will not remain hidden.



Pastor Saeed needs your voice to speak for him.  Others have already spoken out, and continue to speak out.  But every time a new voice is added the volume increases and the combined voices of hundreds of thousands, even millions, cannot be ignored.

In a few short week, on May 7, Pastor Saeed will have his 33rd birthday and 10's of 1000's are sending letters to encourage and support him.  If you have not added your voice to ours, now is the time. If not your voice, then whose?  If not now, then when.  Pastor Saeed is suffering physically from the abuse and beatings.  While his faith remains strong and his spirit resolute, his body is weakening.  Speak out now, before it is too late.