The wife of jailed American pastor Saeed Abedini was praising God at an appearance before the watchdog group International Christian Concern.
“The Lord has counted our family worthy enough to send Saeed to a dark place that he would be able to share with people who are in complete despair,” Naghmeh Abedini said.
She said that while her husband had been in prison there have been many prisoners who have given their hearts to the Lord.
“This has been very hard, but spiritually it is the best time in my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she said. “My new reality forced me out of my self-consumed life. I realized I had a right to speak out for those who are being silenced, to speak for the Christians, for the Jews, for the Baha’i, and other fellow human beings who are being imprisoned simply because of their beliefs.”
The family’s lawyers with the American Center for Law and Justice said that Pastor Abedini is still in an Iranian prison but the authorities are still denying potentially life-saving surgery.
Wrongly imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini was shackled by prison guards at an Iranian hospital and then refused potentially life saving surgery.
The American Center for Law and Justice, who has been trying to obtain Abedini’s release, said that while the pastor was awaiting surgery with an elderly relative, the guards came in and shackled him to the bed. His relative was then forcibly removed from the room by the Iranian guards.
Abedini has been in need of abdominal surgery because of multiple beatings during his time in Iranian prisons. The ACLJ says he was sent back to the prison with only some medication to help him with pain.
The ACLJ has noted the questionable timing of Abedini’s hospital transfer and return to prison. The pastor was taken to the hospital when the High Representative of the European Union arrived in Iran. The EU has been much more active in raising the issue about Pastor Abedini than the American government. The moment that Representative Catherine Ashton departed the country, Abedini was seized and returned to the prison.
“This disturbing turn of events reiterates the need to keep pressure on Iran,” the ACLJ said in a statement.