SCLJ Urges Russian Action to Save Pastor Youcef’s Life

The ACLJ has been directly engaged with our international affiliates worldwide as part of our aggressive effort to save the life of Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.

This week, the Slavic Centre for Law and Justice, the ACLJ’s Russian affiliate, sent a letter to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia, informing him about the plight of Pastor Youcef and calling for him to use his influence in Russia and Iran to secure his release.

The letter appeals to Russia’s unique diplomatic relationship with Iran, as “more than a good neighbor[,] … one of the few major counties that … continues to maintain good neighborly relations with [Iran].”

The letter goes on to state:

At present, we are experiencing a new era of persecution of Christians, which some experts have even compared with the times of the Roman emperors in the first three centuries of our era. Every year, there are an estimated 105,000 Christians who die a violent death as a result of inter-religious conflict: Christians are currently the most persecuted religious community on the planet.

But amid all these persecutions, perhaps the most striking case today is that of Youcef Nadarkhani in Iran. This is a case documented in modern times, when a death in the name of Christ will not be the result of inter-religious conflict, but the result of a legal judgment, supported by higher authorities, that is deemed both as a spiritual one and a governmental one.

The letter urges the Patriarch to intervene on Pastor Youcef’s behalf and appeal to the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, to call on Iran to pardon Pastor Youcef.

As the SCLJ stated, “If this is not done and if this pastor is ultimately executed for his faith, this would ultimately mean that yet another black page has been written in the dark book of stories on the persecution of Christians.”

You can read an English translation of the letter here.