Pastor’s transfer to Iran’s Rajai Shahr Prison a “Death Sentence”
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
TEHRAN, IRAN (Worthy News)– International Christian Concern has just learned of the abrupt transfer of American Pastor Saeed Abedini from Iran’s Evin Prison to a single cell with five death row inmates in Rajai Shahr Prison.
The American Center for Law and Justice described conditions at Rajai Shahr as horrific and believes that Abedini’s imprisonment there is tantamount to a death sentence.
“Prisoners are routinely executed, or murdered by other prisoners,” said Jordan Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the ACLJ. “He is not allowed any visitors and he is under quarantine.
“He is in Ward Nine, which is the murders’ ward … he’s sharing a 10 x 10 cell with five people who have been convicted of violent crimes: these are people who are basically on death row. So, unlike being in a prison that is horrendous … you are now imprisoned with people who are just as violent as maybe those prison guards.”
Diplomatic talks with Iran’s new president had offered hope for Abedini’s freedom, but ICC now reports that individuals close to Abedini’s case said that despite its new leader, things haven’t really changed in Iran.
Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran — one of the world’s foremost persecutors of Christians — since January when he began serving an eight-year sentence for “undermining state security” by creating a network of underground churches in private Iranian homes.