Is He Alive?

Reports out of Iran is that an Order of Execution may have been written and signed for Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.  Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was arrested for being a Christian Minister and has been living in prison under an execution threat since 2009.  The father of 2 sons, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been tortured to renounce Christianity and embrace Islam.  Yet he has refused.  He has gathered strength in his faith while living in close supervision and in isolation from all others but his tormenters.

We are hearing reports from our contacts in Iran that the execution orders for Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani may have been issued.

Pastor Youcef’s situation – an innocent man convicted and sentenced to death for becoming a Christian – has not been this dire since we first brought his case to your attention last year.

It is unclear whether Pastor Youcef would have a right of appeal from the execution order. We know that the head of Iran’s Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, must approve publicly held executions, but only a small percentage of executions are held public—most executions in Iran are conducted in secret.

There has also been a disturbing increase in the number of executions conducted by the Iranian regime in the last month.

Iran is actively violating its human rights obligations by sentencing and detaining Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. We call on the Iranian government to release Pastor Youcef immediately.

We are continuing to work to help spare the life of Pastor Youcef, and will provide additional updates on his situation as we are able.

Please continue to pray, share his story, and call for his release.

Source

Will you lend your voice to many others and sign this petition to free Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.  He is living in the Lion's Den and like Daniel of old he has the same protector.  But for how long?


UPDATE:  It is official.  A warrant of execution has been issued for Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.  It is not known on whether or not the execution of Pastor Nadarkhani has taken place.
By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Iranians Decide To Keep Christian Pastor In Prison For Another Year Hoping To Force His Conversion To Islam

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was arrested in his home city of Rasht, Iran on October 13, 2009.  He was charged with ‘apostasy’ (renunciation of a religion) and ‘evangelim’. Yousef was tried on Sept. 21–22, 2010 by the 1st Court of the Revolutionary Tribunal and sentenced to death on Nov. 13 for apostasy.
Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani has been under the death threat since 2009.  The Iranian government has imprisoned and torture Pastor Nadarkhani for the last 3 years.

An Iranian court is likely to delay its verdict in a case concerning Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who is facing death penalty for converting to Christianity, to allow authorities to further coerce him to convert to Islam as he remains in jail.

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani

The evangelical pastor’s lawyer has learned that the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, has asked the presiding judge over the trial, Ghazi Kashani, to delay the pending judgment and keep him in prison for another year, Present Truth Ministries said in a statement Thursday.

Nadarkhani, a 32-year-old house church leader from the Church of Iran denomination, was convicted of apostasy last year and was sentenced to death by hanging. However, the Supreme Court of Iran asked for the retrial of his case by a lower court in the city of Rasht in northern Gilan Province.

The deliberate delay is meant to let the case “slip away from international attention” even as the authorities continue to “use whatever means necessary to cause him to convert to Islam,” said Jason DeMars, the founder of the ministry that was first to report on the pastor’s arrest two years ago.

It was earlier learnt that the court in Rasht had asked Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the highest ranking political and religious authority in Shi’a-majority Iran, to rule on whether the pastor should be put to death.

The pastor was arrested in October 2009 from Rasht for allegedly protesting Islamic instruction in schools for his children, Daniel, 9, and Yoel, 7, and after he sought to register his church. Authorities, however, later changed the charges to apostasy. He has been lodged in a prison in Lakan, about seven miles south of Rasht, since then.

In June 2010, authorities also arrested pastor’s wife Fatemah Pasindedih to pressure him to convert. During this time their boys went to live with a relative. Yousef and his wife were also threatened that their children would be taken away and given to a Muslim family, but they remained firm. Pasindedih was later released.

The Rasht court convicted the pastor of leaving Islam and sentenced him to death in November 2010.

The pastor appealed against the Rasht court’s ruling at the Supreme Court in December 2010, as apostasy is not a crime as per Iran’s penal code. The court, however, held in June 2011 that apostasy was still punishable under Sharia or Islamic law but asked the lower court to reexamine whether Nadarkhani was a believer in Islam when he adopted Christianity at the age of 19.

During the hearings held in September 2011, Pastor Nadarkhani was told by authorities that he would be given three opportunities to embrace Islam and renounce his faith in Christianity to have the charges removed. But he refused to do so.

On Sept. 26, the court determined that Youcef was a Muslim when he adopted Christianity because he was born in a Muslim family. All witnesses stated that he did not practice Islam, yet the court inexplicably determined he was a national apostate.

While the court is likely to wait for another year before reaching a decision, “there are no assurances that he will not be executed,” warned the ministry. “It could happen at any time. This is the way that the Iranian government operates with executions. They do not give advance notice and it is done in secret.”

Finish reading here.

The Iranians are giving themselves another year of imprisonment and torture to force this good man to renounce the faith he loves and embrace the horror of Islam.  This is how Islam has converted millions over the years.  Not by logical arguments, but by torture and the sword.

As long as Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani refuses to convert, he will stay alive.  The minute he converts, they will kill him for blasphemy.

Pray for the safety of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani.  He is in the lion's den.  May G-d send one of his angels to stand besides him.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle