Saeed Abedini, an American pastor, was brutally beaten last week in the Iranian prison where he is being held, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) reported yesterday.
According to their report, fellow prisoners attacked the pastor as he was trying to leave his cell, punching him in the face near his left eye and nose until his eyes were black and blue. Guards intervened and prevented any bones from being broken.
Abedini has suffered numerous beatings, including internal injuries that require surgery, during his three years in Iranian prisons. His wife, Nagmeh, testified to Congress that each beating has taken its toll: “I’m not just worried about his physical pain, but his psychological [pain].”
Abedini was initially imprisoned in Evin Prison in September 2012. He was eventually sentenced on Jan. 27, 2013, to eight years in prison for reportedly undermining national security by hosting private religious gatherings in Iranian Christian homes.
“It is heartbreaking to me and my family that Saeed was again beaten in prison,” his wife Nagmeh said in a statement. “Saeed’s life is continuously threatened not only because he is an American, but also because he is a convert from Islam to Christianity. It’s time to get Saeed home before it is too late.”
Ahead of the June 30 deadline for the conclusion of nuclear negotiations with Iran, there is a renewed push to secure the release of American prisoners. Last week, Naghmeh told the the House Foreign Affairs Committee, “These next few weeks is the very crucial time. If we don’t get the Americans out, I don’t know when we’ll have more leverage.”
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Amir Hekmati has also been held prisoner in Iran since 2011. According to Hekmati’s family, he’s been tortured by the Iranians, who accuse him of espionage.
Hekmati’s sister says he’s spent “months on end” in solitary confinement in a tiny cell one meter by one meter long, which he was only allowed to leave for 10 minutes once a week, Michigan Live reported.
“It’s very hard to see how an enduring nuclear agreement, one that requires us to trust Iran’s intentions, can be reached in good faith while the regime illegally holds and allegedly tortures Americans,” talk show host and Marine Corps veteran Montel Williams wrote in an April op-ed for the L.A. Times. He said Iran was doing that “to gain leverage in the ongoing negotiation.”
Abedini, Hekmati, Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and former FBI agent Robert Levinson are the four Americans who are still held captive in Iran despite the ongoing nuclear negotiations.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee called a week ago specifically for their release, with Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., saying: “Each of these tragic cases is unique. But they show Iran’s view of the United States, which is in contempt.”
If the Iranians “are truly serious about rejoining the international community, if they really want us to trust their intentions, then they would promptly release Hekmati and the other three Americans now being held as political prisoners,” wrote Williams. “The Obama administration…[should] also talk about these four Americans less coldly…These four Americans have names; they are not ‘this issue,’ ‘our citizens’ or any number of other monikers the administration has too often used in verbal communications in lieu of saying their names.”
