For quite some time Arizona Representative Trent Franks, Co-Chair of the International Religious Freedom Caucus, has fought for the release of imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedini. Now, in a statement of bipartisan support for the pastor, a resolution has been proposed in the U.S. Senate calling for his release.
This bipartisan resolution is sponsored by Senators Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
Importantly, the resolution directly calls “on the Government of Iran to immediately release Saeed Abedini and all other individuals detained on account of their religious beliefs,” according to the ACLJ.
“In recent weeks, hopes had been high that Iran was preparing to do the right thing and release Pastor Saeed and other prisoners of conscious as part of a good faith showing under newly elected president Hassan Rouhani,” said a statement by the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing Abedini’s wife, Naghmeh, and their two children in the U.S.
The ACLJ says the bipartisan statement is another important step as the U.S. government continues to send a clear message to Iran: now is the time to “demonstrate the commitment of Iran to individual human rights through the release of all prisoners of conscience.”
The Iranian American Christian pastor has been detained in Iran since the summer of 2012. This January he was sentenced to eight years in prison, on charges of undermining national security through his Christian evangelical activities in Iran in the early 2000s.
The ACLJ is urging the Senate to quickly and unanimously pass this bipartisan resolution for Pastor Saeed’s freedom.
The proposed Senate resolution concludes:
Resolved, That the Senate—
(1) recognizes that freedom of religious belief and practice is a universal human right and a fundamental freedom of every individual, regardless of race, sex, country, creed, or nationality, and should never be arbitrarily abridged by any government;
(2) recognizes that governments have a responsibility to protect the fundamental rights of their citizens; and
(3) calls on the Government of Iran to immediately release Saeed Abedini and all other individuals detained on account of their religious beliefs.
It is a critical time in Pastor Saeed’s case. It is time for action from Iran.