THE UK's Foreign Secretary and the Archbishop of Canterbury
intervened today to try to save a Christian pastor in Iran who has refused to
renounce his faith to escape a death sentence.
An Iranian court gave Youcef Nadarkhani, 34, (pic) a third
and final chance to avoid hanging, but he replied, "I am resolute in my
faith and Christianity and have no wish to recant."
The panel of five judges will decide within a week whether to
confirm his execution for apostasy, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, his lawyer, told The
(London) Times.
William Hague said he "deplored" Pastor
Nadarkhani's plight, and a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office diplomat
telephoned the Iranian charge d'affaires in London to protest.
"This demonstrates the Iranian regime's continued
unwillingness to abide by its constitutional and international obligations to
respect religious freedom," Mr Hague said. "I pay tribute to the
courage shown by Pastor Nadarkhani, who has no case to answer, and call on the
Iranian authorities to overturn his sentence."
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, broke his
silence to express "deep concern" at the sentence faced by
Nadarkhani, and at the persecution of religious minorities in Iran generally.
A member of the Protestant evangelical Church of Iran and the
father of two young boys, Nadarkhani held services in underground "home
churches" in Rasht, a provincial town about 240km north-west of Tehran.
In 2009, he challenged the regime's insistence that all
schools should teach Islam. He was arrested in October that year and has been
imprisoned in Rasht ever since. He was sentenced to death for apostasy by a
court in Rasht last year.
Sources said Christian clerics and advisers had been working
hard behind the scenes to save the pastor's life, but had sought to avoid
"megaphone diplomacy" in case it did more harm than good.
The US Department of State has also condemned the Iranian
judiciary for demanding that Nadarkhani renounce his faith or face execution.
"While Iran's leaders hypocritically claim to promote tolerance,
they continue to detain, imprison, harass and abuse those who simply wish to
worship the faith of their choosing," it said.
Source : news.com.au
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