SAEED ABEDINI - Present Truth Ministries

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husband from Idaho, is currently imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. ... Tehran to visit family and to finalize the board members for an orphanage he was  ...
SAEED ABEDINI IMPRISONED IN IRAN FOR HIS FAITH QUICK FACTS Name: Saeed Abedini (Note his last name in Iran is Abedinigalangashi) Date of Birth: 7 May 1980 Been U.S. citizen since: 11 March 2010 (became naturalized U.S. citizen) Spouse Name: Naghmeh Children: Daughter (6 years old) and Son (5 years old) Prison: Evin Prison Court: Revolutionary Court Branch 26 Trial Judge: Judge Pir-Abassi Case number: ‫د ط‬ ۴ / (TD19048/91) Appeal: Revolutionary Court Branch 36 Trial date: 21 January 2013 Conviction date: 27 January 2013 Charge: eghdam alayhe amniate meli (crimes against the security of Iran)

DETAILED FACTS Saeed Abedini (known as Saeed Abedinigalangashi inside Iran), a 32-year-old father and husband from Idaho, is currently imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. Saeed is a dual national of the United States (via naturalization) and Iran (by birth). On 28 July 2012, during a visit to Tehran to visit family and to finalize the board members for an orphanage he was building in Northwest Iran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard detained Saeed asserting that he must face criminal charges for his Christian faith. After intense interrogations, Saeed was placed under house arrest and told to wait for a court summons. On 26 September 2012, instead of receiving a summons telling him where to appear, five members of the Revolutionary Guard raided Saeed’s parents’ home in Tehran, confiscated many of Saeed’s belongings, told him to pack a bag, and took him to an unknown location. After four days without word of Saeed’s whereabouts, the Revolutionary Guard informed the family that Saeed was in solitary confinement in the notorious Evin Prison. Saeed remained in solitary confinement for approximately four weeks before he was moved to section 3, ward 209, of Evin Prison. During solitary confinement, Saeed was only brought out of his small, dark cell to be subjected to abusive interrogations. From these interrogations, a local prosecutor by the name of Ghenaatkar made it clear that Saeed would face national security charges for exercising his fundamental right to religious freedom. The prosecutor alleged that Saeed attempted to undermine the government of Iran through his conversion from Islam to Christianity,

Fact Sheet Page 2 of 3 working with foreign Christian satellite TV, starting a network of house churches, and conducting Christian conferences and leadership training outside of Iran. Saeed has been beaten and threatened with death for his faith. In a letter Saeed penned from prison on 10 January 2013, Saeed said: I am “told I will hang for my faith in Jesus” and that he suffered “intense pains after beatings in interrogations.” This threat of death by hanging became a stronger reality when Saeed’s case (No. ‫د ط‬ ۴ / or TD19048/91) was assigned to Judge PirAbassi of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, a judge commonly referred to as the “hanging judge.”1 In April 2011, the European Union individually sanctioned Judge Pir-Abassi for presiding over numerous unfair trials of human rights activists following the 2009 Iranian election and for handing down long prison sentences and several death sentences to those convicted.2 Similarly, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended to the U.S. Department of State in its 2012 Annual Report that the U.S. government issue sanctions against Judge Pir-Abassi, which would bar him “from entry into the United States and freeze [his and his immediate family members’ financial] assets” because he is “responsible for particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”3 To date, the U.S. State Department has not sanctioned Judge PirAbassi. Saeed was denied access to his attorney, Naser Sarbazi, until less than 24 hours before his trial. He appeared before Judge Pir-Abassi on 21 January 2013, to present his defense. The lawyer confirmed in Iranian news that Saeed was on trial for intentionally undermining the national security of Iran through his leadership in Christian house churches.4 Saeed and his attorney argued that his intention in gathering with fellow Christian believers was motivated solely by his faith and that he had no intent to undermine the government of Iran. Judge Pir-Abassi had requested Saeed’s lawyer go to the media and state that the trial was conducted fairly and that he would be let out on bail soon. Yet, the family had repeatedly sought bail in the past, a request that was repeatedly denied. On day two of Saeed’s trial, Saeed and his attorney were barred from the court room while the court questioned acquaintances and lay ministers. One of these witness reported that the court asked about the individual’s association with Saeed, the current status of the Christian house churches, the individual’s conversion to Christianity, and how Saeed funded his travels and the orphanage. On 27 January 2013, one week after Saeed had presented his defence, he was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison. The court relied heavily on his activities with the Christian house churches between 2000 and 2005. No written verdict was issued, and Saeed’s lawyer was told he had 20 days to appeal the verdict. During the week of his trial, Saeed was transferred from ward 209 to section 3 of ward 350 at the request of his attorney. Saeed had been denied medical treatment in ward 209 for some infections that resulted from several beatings. The ward doctor and nurse had refused to treat him because, as a Christian, he was considered “unclean” and an infidel. Saeed’s family in Tehran may

1

http://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases/3059-52610-iran-uscirf-uncovers-testimony-alleging-that-three-qhanging-judgesqare-responsible.html 2 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:100:0001:0011:EN:PDF. 3 http://www.uscirf.gov/images/Annual%20Report%20of%20USCIRF%202012(2).pdf. 4 http://www.vekalat.org/public.php?cat=1&newsnum=2982840.

Fact Sheet Page 3 of 3 visit Saeed on Mondays, but he is not permitted to make phone calls, cutting him off entirely from his wife and two young children in the United States. On 4 February 2013, Saeed’s Iranian attorney timely filed an appeal of his conviction and sentence. In early April 2013, Saeed’s appeal was sent to Branch 36 of the Revolutionary Courts. Of the two appeal branches to which his case could have been sent – Branch 36 or Branch 54 – Branch 36 signifies that the Iranian government is not willing to give Saeed’s case an impartial review. According to Iranian attorneys, the judges of Branch 36 are known to “rubber stamp” decisions and follow directions given from the Regime. On Sunday, 7 April 2013, Saeed’s Iranian attorney again attempted to get him released on bail, but his efforts were denied. In late February it became known that Saeed was suffering from internal bleeding, an injury that resulted from the physical beatings he endured during his interrogations. Doctors examined Saeed in early March and determined that his injuries warranted immediate medical attention, and, in their medical opinion, he needed to be transferred to a hospital outside the prison for treatment. For over a month, the Iranian regime ignored this advice. In an attempt to appease international pressure, on 8 April 2013, the prison officials took Saeed to a private hospital in Tehran. But before doing so, several guards forced Saeed to change his prison uniform to that of a murder. When Saeed resisted, the guards physically abused him, beating him and kicking him in the stomach (exacerbating the internal bleeding), stripping him down, and forcing him to wear the uniform for known murders. When Saeed arrived at the hospital he was paraded around, but was never admitted or treated because, according to the guards, the doctor on staff who was to treat Saeed was not present. Saeed has also reported that several cellmates, who appear to be connected to the Iranian intelligence police, have threatened to suffocate Saeed while he sleeps and make his death look like an accident. Without lifesaving medical treatment, the guards returned Saeed to ward 350 of Evin prison. Saeed was recently thrown back into solitary confinement for 10 days. Just before being placed in solitary confinement, Saeed complained of pain in his kidneys. He and the several other prisoners in ward 350 wrote a letter to prison officials in peaceful protest of their lack of access to medical attention. In response to this letter, Iranian officials chose ten prisoners to place under solitary confinement, Saeed being one of them. Although Saeed in now back in the general prison population he has still been refused medical treatment.