BCLJ Urges Evangelical Leaders in Brazil to Fight for Pastor Youcef

By 

Filipe Coelho

|
June 22, 2012

2 min read

Middle East

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On Thursday, June 14th, as the Director of the Brazilian Center for Law & Justice (BCLJ), the ACLJ’s affiliate in Brazil, I met with the President of the Social Christian Party (PSC), Pastor Everaldo Pereira, in the city of Goiânia. One of the issues addressed was the situation of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani who is still imprisoned in Iran for converting to Christianity. Pastor Youcef will have been illegally imprisoned in Iran for 1000 days on July 8th.

Filipe Coelho with Pastor Everaldo Perelra in Brazil meeting to discuss Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.

Once again I asked for Everaldo's help to try for Youcef's release. I said, "We cannot let it cool down, we have to take advantage of Rio +20 because the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be in Brazil during the event with the delegation of Iran in Brazil now at the Rio +20." After our first meeting earlier this year, Pastor Everaldo immediately phoned Brazil's Vice-President Michel Temer "to appeal for a manifestation of the Brazilian Government in the case of [Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani], sentenced to death in Iran for having converted to Christianity.”

Now, news reports have indicated that “Michel Temer did get to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a letter signed by Pastor Silas Malafaia and eleven evangelical pastors who charged the release of Pastor [Youcef] Nadarkhani . . . .”

News media in Brazil has previously reported about how political and evangelical leaders in Brazil have been involved in Pastor Youcef’s case: Temer reported the case to [Brazil's President Dilma] Rousseff, which triggered Antonio Patriota, over the weekend in Turkey.

Alleging the delay in performance of Brazilian diplomacy, Everaldo contacted Pastor Silas Malafaia to engage the Interdenominational Council of Ministers Evangelicals (with about 20,000 members) in the movement for the release of [Youcef].

Everaldo also would send an official statement yesterday on behalf of the board to the Foreign Ministry.