Iran frees Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani
Court acquits Nadarkhani of apostasy charge
CSW
The Iranian Christian pastor awaiting execution has been acquitted of the charge of apostasy and released from imprisonment.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports that at an 8 September 2012 hearing, the court overturned Yousef Nadarkhani’s 2010 conviction for apostasy, finding him guilty instead of proselytizing Muslims. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment, but released for time served.
In 2009, Mr. Nadarkhani was arrested and charged with apostasy after he complained that new government regulations requiring that his two sons, Daniel (10) and Yoel (8) be instructed in Islam in school violated the Iranian constitution’s guarantee of the free practice of religion.
Born in a non-practicing Muslim family, Mr. Nadarkhani (35) converted to Christianity as a young man and for the past ten years has been the pastor of a network of house churches in the town of Rasht in Iran’s Gilan province on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.
In 2006, he was jailed on charges of apostasy but released from prison after two weeks. Following his complaint about his sons’ indoctrination, Mr. Nadarkhani was arrested and brought before a political tribunal on 12 October 2009, charged with apostasy and proselytizing Muslims.
Initially held in solitary confinement in Lakan prison in Rasht, Mr. Nadarkhani was permitted access to an attorney and his family was allowed to visit – however, he was also pressed to recant his Christian faith, and at one point was taken to a mental hospital after it was suggested his refusal to return to Islam was a sign of insanity.
On 18 June 2010, his wife Fatemah (Tina) Pasindedih was arrested, charged with apostasy and after trial was given a life term of imprisonment. However, her sentence was overturn on appeal and she was released from prison.
Mr. Nadarkhani was brought to trial on 21-22 September 2010 before the 1st Court of the Revolutionary Tribunal. On 13 November 2010 the court handed down a guilty verdict and ordered he be hanged for the crime of apostasy. The third chamber of the Iranian Supreme Court in Qom on 28 June 2011 upheld the conviction for apostasy and the death sentence, but stayed execution pending an investigation by the local court to determine when Mr. Nadarkhani had left Islam.
In October 2011 the trial court wrote to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini, requesting his opinion as to how to proceed. It was subsequently announced that the local court would review the proceedings in light of further investigations and of Sharia law precedents.
Each of Islam’s five major schools of jurisprudence call for the death penalty for those who leave Islam for another faith. However Islamic law distinguishes between apostasy of an adult and a child. The ‘Umdat as-Salik wa ‘Uddat an-Nasik (Reliance of the Traveler and Tools of the Worshipper), of the Shafi’i school of Islamic jurisprudence as practiced by the Al-Azhar in Cairo rejects the death penalty for child apostates, as does the Hidayah, the Hanafi code that guides Muslim jurisprudence in India and Pakistan.
Iran’s proposed Islamic Penal Law also divides apostates into two categories: parental and innate. Innate apostates were those whose parents were Muslim, made a profession of Islam—the Shahada-as an adult and then left the faith, while parental apostates were those born in non-Muslim families and converted to Islam as an adult, and then left the faith.
Article 225-7 states the “Punishment for an innate apostate is death,” while Article 225-8 allows a parental apostate three days to recant their apostasy. If they continued in their unbelief, “the death penalty would be carried out.” Women apostates were spared the death penalty, but would have been jailed until they recanted. Discretion in applying the sentence of death, however, is given to the court.
The push to impose penal sanctions on apostates from Islam comes amidst a rise in conversions to Christianity in Iran. Approximately 200,000 or one percent of Iran’s population, belong to officially sanctioned groups that have historic ties to the region such as the Armenian, Assyrian and Catholic Churches.
However, the number of Protestant Christians is unclear. In 1979, there were less than 500 known Christians from a Muslim background in Iran. “Today the most conservative estimate is that there are at least 100,000 believers in the nation,” reports Elam Ministry—a British based Christian ministry to Persians.
News of the release of Mr. Nadarkhani was greeted with joy by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). The organization’s chief executive, Mervyn Thomas said, "CSW is delighted to learn of Pastor Nadarkhani’s release after a long incarceration. We commend the Iranian judiciary for this step, which is a triumph for justice and the rule of law.”
“While we rejoice at this wonderful news, we do not forget hundreds of others who are harassed or unjustly detained on account of their faith, and CSW is committed to continue campaigning until all of Iran’s religious minorities are able to enjoy religious freedom as guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is party.”
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports that at an 8 September 2012 hearing, the court overturned Yousef Nadarkhani’s 2010 conviction for apostasy, finding him guilty instead of proselytizing Muslims. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment, but released for time served.
In 2009, Mr. Nadarkhani was arrested and charged with apostasy after he complained that new government regulations requiring that his two sons, Daniel (10) and Yoel (8) be instructed in Islam in school violated the Iranian constitution’s guarantee of the free practice of religion.
Born in a non-practicing Muslim family, Mr. Nadarkhani (35) converted to Christianity as a young man and for the past ten years has been the pastor of a network of house churches in the town of Rasht in Iran’s Gilan province on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.
In 2006, he was jailed on charges of apostasy but released from prison after two weeks. Following his complaint about his sons’ indoctrination, Mr. Nadarkhani was arrested and brought before a political tribunal on 12 October 2009, charged with apostasy and proselytizing Muslims.
Initially held in solitary confinement in Lakan prison in Rasht, Mr. Nadarkhani was permitted access to an attorney and his family was allowed to visit – however, he was also pressed to recant his Christian faith, and at one point was taken to a mental hospital after it was suggested his refusal to return to Islam was a sign of insanity.
On 18 June 2010, his wife Fatemah (Tina) Pasindedih was arrested, charged with apostasy and after trial was given a life term of imprisonment. However, her sentence was overturn on appeal and she was released from prison.
Mr. Nadarkhani was brought to trial on 21-22 September 2010 before the 1st Court of the Revolutionary Tribunal. On 13 November 2010 the court handed down a guilty verdict and ordered he be hanged for the crime of apostasy. The third chamber of the Iranian Supreme Court in Qom on 28 June 2011 upheld the conviction for apostasy and the death sentence, but stayed execution pending an investigation by the local court to determine when Mr. Nadarkhani had left Islam.
In October 2011 the trial court wrote to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini, requesting his opinion as to how to proceed. It was subsequently announced that the local court would review the proceedings in light of further investigations and of Sharia law precedents.
Each of Islam’s five major schools of jurisprudence call for the death penalty for those who leave Islam for another faith. However Islamic law distinguishes between apostasy of an adult and a child. The ‘Umdat as-Salik wa ‘Uddat an-Nasik (Reliance of the Traveler and Tools of the Worshipper), of the Shafi’i school of Islamic jurisprudence as practiced by the Al-Azhar in Cairo rejects the death penalty for child apostates, as does the Hidayah, the Hanafi code that guides Muslim jurisprudence in India and Pakistan.
Iran’s proposed Islamic Penal Law also divides apostates into two categories: parental and innate. Innate apostates were those whose parents were Muslim, made a profession of Islam—the Shahada-as an adult and then left the faith, while parental apostates were those born in non-Muslim families and converted to Islam as an adult, and then left the faith.
Article 225-7 states the “Punishment for an innate apostate is death,” while Article 225-8 allows a parental apostate three days to recant their apostasy. If they continued in their unbelief, “the death penalty would be carried out.” Women apostates were spared the death penalty, but would have been jailed until they recanted. Discretion in applying the sentence of death, however, is given to the court.
The push to impose penal sanctions on apostates from Islam comes amidst a rise in conversions to Christianity in Iran. Approximately 200,000 or one percent of Iran’s population, belong to officially sanctioned groups that have historic ties to the region such as the Armenian, Assyrian and Catholic Churches.
However, the number of Protestant Christians is unclear. In 1979, there were less than 500 known Christians from a Muslim background in Iran. “Today the most conservative estimate is that there are at least 100,000 believers in the nation,” reports Elam Ministry—a British based Christian ministry to Persians.
News of the release of Mr. Nadarkhani was greeted with joy by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). The organization’s chief executive, Mervyn Thomas said, "CSW is delighted to learn of Pastor Nadarkhani’s release after a long incarceration. We commend the Iranian judiciary for this step, which is a triumph for justice and the rule of law.”
“While we rejoice at this wonderful news, we do not forget hundreds of others who are harassed or unjustly detained on account of their faith, and CSW is committed to continue campaigning until all of Iran’s religious minorities are able to enjoy religious freedom as guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is party.”
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