House Hearing Set For Next Week On Pastor Saeed Abedini

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http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/12/07/House-Hearing-Set-For-Next-Week-On-Pastor-Saeed-Abedini

American Pastor Saeed Abedini, wrongly imprisoned in Iran for over a year, has been forced to endure brutal, abusive treatment in recent days according to press reports out Iran.

Friends and family of Abedini - as well as many fellow Americans were hoping and praying that his case would be brought up during US negotiations with Iran in Geneva, a couple of weeks ago, but that was not to be. Since then, his situation has become more dire.

Via the ACLJ:

    Last month Pastor Saeed was transferred from the political prisoner ward of Evin prison, a notoriously dangerous prison, to the violent criminal ward of Rajai Shahr prison, the deadliest prison in Iran.  This week we learned that Pastor Saeed has been repeatedly robbed and threatened at knifepoint in this new prison.

    Pastor Saeed’s health is also deteriorating.  He is experiencing increased pain in his stomach as he is being denied necessary medication by Iranian authorities.  He is malnourished, covered in lice, and losing weight because of horrendous prison conditions.

A joint subcommittee hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has been scheduled for Thursday, December 12th at 9:30am.
Pastor Saeed’s wife, Naghmeh, and Jordan Sekulow of the ACLJ have been asked to testify about Pastor Saeed’s worsening plight.

Sekulow writes, "in light of his deadly situation and the Obama Administration’s refusal to even ask for Pastor Saeed’s release in recent direct negotiations with Iran, it is imperative that Congress speak out.  The U.S. State Department and the Obama Administration must make Pastor Saeed’s freedom a true priority. The life of a U.S. citizen – whose only “crime” is his Christian faith – is a stake."

In a recent statement, Senator Ted Cruz called the Obama administration's abandonment of Abedini, and the other political prisoners held in Iran, "unconscionable."

    "It is unconscionable that senior American diplomats, including the Secretary of State, who were conducting cordial negotiations with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva in the days after Pastor Saeed’s transfer, could not bring themselves to even mention his name, or those of fellow Americans detained in Iran, Amir Hekmati and Robert Levinson. We are informed by administration officials that the issue of the American prisoners is 'on the