Washington Examiner - Lawmakers Pressure Kerry to Aid American Pastor Jailed in Iran

By Joel Gehrke, WashingtonExaminer.com

Over eighty Republican and Democratic lawmakers from both chambers of Congress wrote Secretary of State John Kerry asking that he reinforce the European diplomats trying to secure the release of an American pastor imprisoned in Iran on religious charges.

Pastor Saeed Abedini, who lives with his family in Idaho, was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of starting house churches in Iran after he traveled there to start an orphanage — a project the Iranian government encouraged. . . .

“We know that international pressure works,” ACLJ executive director Jordan Sekulow wrote in The Washington Post this week. “We saw that with the case of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was released for a second time earlier this year after being sentenced to execution for apostasy (converting to Christianity). His freedom is the direct result of immense international pressure.”. . .

You can read the entire story here.