By Lisa Daftari
The wife of an American pastor imprisoned in Iran for his Christian beliefs delivered an impassioned plea to foreign diplomats gathered in Geneva, begging them to press the Islamic republic to free her husband.
Naghmeh Abedini, whose husband Saeed Abedini is serving an eight-year sentence in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, told members of the United Nations Human Rights Council to join her “in crying out against his persecution.”
“My husband, a U.S. citizen and loving father of our two young children, has been held in Iran’s brutal Evin Prison because of his faith — without a voice to fight for his freedom,” she said in testimony Tuesday morning. “I must, therefore, be his voice.”
Abedini’s backers have for months pressed his case, but hearing it from the 33-year-old Idaho resident’s wife and mother of his two children had far greater impact, according to Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, which represents the Abedinis.
“The opportunity for her to share her husband’s story before the United Nations is very significant,” Sekulow told FoxNews.com from Geneva, where he testified on Friday. “They looked her directly in the eyes, heard her pleas and saw her pain. The empathy and compassion of the world could be felt as she delivered her remarks.”