{"id":51683,"date":"2024-10-29T14:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=51683"},"modified":"2024-10-26T15:18:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T06:18:17","slug":"vomk-report-322","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2024\/10\/29\/vomk-report-322\/","title":{"rendered":"IRAN: PASTOR ACQUITTED, RELEASED FROM PRISON"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”51681″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”On September 24, 2024, Pastor Anooshavan Avedian (62) was acquitted by Branch 21 of the Appeal Court of Tehran on the charge of \u201cpropaganda contrary to and disturbing the holy religion of Islam\u201d and ordered to be released from prison immediately, according to Voice of the Martyrs Korea. The ministry, which conducted an international campaign to send letters of encouragement to Pastor Avedian during his time in prison, is urging Christians to continue to pray for the pastor, and to send letters to other Christians still imprisoned for their faith. ” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:1.2em|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” el_class=”headline”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was released, Pastor Avedian told friends and family that he is excited and glad to be free, and that he and his wife and two children are doing fine,\u201d said Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pastor Avedian spent 372 consecutive days behind bars. He was arrested by Iranian security agents at his home on Aug. 21, 2020, where he and some Christian friends had gathered for prayer and worship.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe group was meeting in his home because Iranian officials had closed their church several years earlier,\u201d said Representative Foley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”51678″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Government agents confiscated Bibles and cellphones before taking Pastor Avedian and two other Christians to Tehran’s Evin Prison, notorious for harsh treatment of Christian prisoners. The pastor’s two friends were released two days later, but Pastor Avedian was held for 26 days and harshly interrogated.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>On April 11, 2022, an Iranian judge sentenced Pastor Avedian to 10 years in prison for engaging in “propaganda contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam.” Police ordered Pastor Avedian to appear at Evin prison on Sept. 18, 2023, to begin his 10-year prison sentence.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The pastor had appealed to Iran’s Supreme Court for a retrial, but the appeal was denied. Pastor Avedian is 62 years old and has a wife and two children.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Representative Foley says that while Pastor Avedian\u2019s release is an answer to prayer, prayers are often needed more after a prisoner is released than during the imprisonment. \u201cFormer prisoners of faith often tell us that while they are in prison, the Lord feels very close to them, and then when they are released the feel overwhelmed by all the challenges of returning to normal life–especially when authorities are watching closely,\u201d she says. \u201cWe should pray that the family will experience the Lord\u2019s comfort and strong, safe presence, and that they will know how to serve him in the coming days.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”51682″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Iranian pastor Anooshavan Avedian (photo from Article 18) ” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230a0101|line_height:1.45em” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]According to Representative Foley, writing letters to Christians imprisoned for their faith is a ministry often neglected by Christians. \u201cMost Christians don\u2019t realize that it is often possible to write letters to Christians like Pastor Avedian, to encourage them while they are in prison,\u201d says Representative Foley. \u201cChristians assume that the letters would be blocked or would create further troubles for Christian prisoners, or they worry that they themselves will be tracked somehow for writing a letter. Sometimes they think that since they don\u2019t speak the prisoner\u2019s language, it is not possible to write. But our website maintains a list of prisoners in places where mail can be received, and where a simple letter of Christian encouragement will not create trouble for the prisoner or the letter writer. We provide the text in the prisoner\u2019s language so that a letter can be easily cut and pasted. It\u2019s easy, it only takes about 5 minutes and a small amount of money for the postage. Former prisoners frequently tell us how much letters from Christians around the world meant to them during their imprisonment.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The ministry\u2019s website currently lists the information and addresses for 11 Christians currently imprisoned for their faith, in countries including China, North Korea, and Eritrea. The list is accessible at <\/span>https:\/\/vom-ru.org\/prisoner-alert\/<\/span><\/a> .\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”51681″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”On September 24, 2024, Pastor Anooshavan Avedian (62) was acquitted by Branch 21 of the Appeal Court of Tehran on the charge of \u201cpropaganda contrary to and …","protected":false},"author":659,"featured_media":51680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vomk-report"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en","zh","ru"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"zh":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51683"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51685,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51683\/revisions\/51685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}