Pastor Hassan Abduraheem, wrongly convicted on false charges and sentenced to 12 years in prison in Sudan, received a presidential pardon and has been freed from prison.

On May 11, this Christian pastor imprisoned for his Christian faith was released from jail. This is a significant victory for our months-long global campaign to free this persecuted pastor.

As we previously reported:

In November 2015, Rev. Hassan Abduraheem and Rev. Kuwa Shamal attended a Christian conference in Addis Ababa, Ethopia where Rev. Abduraheem was a speaker. During his speech, Rev. Abduraheem showed the audience a picture of a young man who had been badly beaten for attending a demonstration, and explained that he was helping pay for his medical treatment.

The Sudanese government, however, claimed that anyone who provided humanitarian aid to this individual had committed a national security crime.

In December 2015, Sudan’s National Intelligence Security Service (NISS) arrested the pastors on national security charges associated with helping the injured man. Rev. Shamal was conditionally released several weeks later, but throughout his conditional release, he was often required to report to the NISS offices at 8 am and held until midnight.  Rev. Shamal was re-arrested in May 2016 and remains in prison in horrible conditions along with Rev. Abduraheem to this day.

They are now on trial because of their Christian faith, all because they provided humanitarian aid to someone in need.

Pastor Kuwa was released months ago without any convictions. But Pastor Hassan was sentenced to more than a decade in prison with very little hope.

We aggressively advocated across the globe on their behalf, sending legal letters to Sudan’s national leaders, urging them to meet their international legal obligations to not violate religious freedom.

More than 200,000 of you signed the petition to join our letters and to be heard for these Christian pastors in Sudan. Both of them are now free. But we can’t stop praying.

Christian persecution continues to be a major problem in Sudan, with churches being demolished and dozens more on government lists to be destroyed.