On September 29, 2011 I put a post on this blog titled Truth &
Courage - Bible & Barnhardt. In part that post was about a Christian pastor,
Youcef Nadarkhani, facing death because he would not renounce his faith and
return to Islam. The following article published on the International
Business Times brings us up to date on Pastor
Nadarkhani's plight.
Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Gets Final Execution Order
Iran
has issued what could be the final execution order for Youcef Nadarkhani, the Christian pastor who was found
guilty of renouncing Islam.
Nadarkhani has been waiting in limbo for
this verdict for months. After turning down four separate chances to convert to
Islam to save his life, Iranian officials delayed their sentencing, leaving the
pastor to await his fate inside a cell in Iran's Gilan province. But now,
Nadarkhani could be executed within days.
"They
are threatening to execute a pastor who is, in my opinion, totally
innocent," said U.S. Representative Joseph Pitts (R. - PA), who is
sponsoring a congressionalresolution to
call for Nadarkhani's freedom.
"He's facing the threat of execution
on false charges just because of his religious belief. He's willing to face the
hangman's noose over this."
On
Monday, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), an international Christian
and human rightsorganization,
discovered that Nadarkhani's "life is in imminent danger" and that
"the situation has not been this dire" since the organization first
learned of his arrest. While that first report did not go into specifics, the
organization believes it has confirmed the execution order and that, at least
as of Tuesday, Nadarkhani was still alive.
"Iran's legal system is not like any
legal system in the world. [The order] is still being kept secret. Even his
legal team might not find out about the execution until the body is delivered
to the family," said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the ACLJ.
Crisis of Faith
The
pastor, who once led a small congregation of about 400 worshipers in the
northwest part of the country, was originally arrested in 2009 for apostasy,
the crime of abandoning one's faith. Although apostasy is not a crime under
Iran's official legal code, it is punishable by death according to Ayatollah
Khomeini's fatwas and religious decrees, thereby bringing Nadarkhani's trial
through Iran's special Revolutionary Court.
Under Iranian law, anyone born to Muslim
parents is a Muslim. Nadarkhani claimed in his defense that he never accepted
the Islamic faith and that he became a Christian before 15, the age of
religious maturity in Iran. And while Christianity is a protected religion
under Iran's constitution, Nadarkhani was also charged with converting other
Muslims to Christianity through his evangelism, which is a crime.
A
year after his arrest Nadarkhani, was "convicted of turning his back on
Islam, the greatest religion of the prophesy of Mohammad, at the age of
19," according to a court ruling from December, 2010. That's when the
first death sentence was handed out. After many attempts to get the pastor to
repent, the case eventually made it to the Supreme Court and
then to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is still the final
judge.
If the order goes through, it will be the
first time that anyone has been officially hanged for apostasy in Iran in over
20 years.
(However, the legal system allows Iran to
publish charges after a criminal has been executed, meaning that the court can
mask an apostasy execution after the fact by changing the conviction. Iran has
already made claims that Nadarkhani was arrested for "security-related
crimes" like Zionism and spying -- claims which court documents refuted
but were made nonetheless.)
Final Plea
Along
with Pitts, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Rep. Keith Ellison (D. - Minn),
the White House,
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the European Union have
also condemned Iran for breaking with the Universal Declaration of Human
rights, of which Iran is a signatory.
But these official censures may be too
little too late. Iran's execution orders are kept private, so the details are
unclear and the execution order could be carried out at any time.
In Iran, those sentenced to death generally
don't wait long for execution. Alireza Molla-Soltani, a teenager convicted of
the murder of "Iran's strongest man," was sentenced to death on Aug.
20, 2011, denied appeal on Sept. 11, and then hanged on Sept. 21. Thus,
Nadarkhani could be hanged in a matter of days.
"There are grave concerns that the
death sentence could be carried out at any time without prior notification and
that the authorities will merely announce it later, a practice that is not
uncommon in Iran," activist group Christian Solidarity Worldwide stated.
If the execution is held publicly, it will
have to be approved by Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani. But if it's done in private,
which most hangings in Iran are, it may not be known about until days or weeks
after it occurs, the ACLJ points out.
Still, Pitts and Sekulow believe that if
enough international attention on the issue is brought quickly to the fore, the
pressure will be enough change the minds of Iranian leadership, at least for
the time being.
"It's not there's no hope, because
Iran knows it's being watched," said Sekulow. "The only hope for
[Nadarkhani] right now is that one of the ayatollahs steps in." [Because
of the secrecy surrounding the case,] "we won't know who stepped in or
how, but it will still be a victory."
"I hope people will pray for him and
for the Iranian authorities and that the right thing will be done. It's the
only thing that some of us can do," said Pitts.
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