Related Stories

• UFIC pastor arrested in Kwekwe | 2013 June 17 07:10:09
• Zim pastor wreaks havoc in UK, bedding congregates | 2013 June 02 22:17:40
• Pastor Tafara Butayi talking about tithing! - audio | 2013 May 31 21:05:43
• Adulterous pastor tortured for days | 2013 May 18 21:40:39
• Pastor told he is poor in bed | 2013 May 16 15:55:03
• Pastor accused of raping epileptic congregant | 2013 May 02 13:10:44

A U.S. human rights group says it has received troubling reports that Iran may have issued an execution order for an Iranian pastor, who was sentenced to death because he refused to recant his Christian faith and return to Islam.

"At this point, we can confirm that he is still alive," Jordan Sekulow, executive director for the American Center for Law and Justice, told msnbc.com Wednesday evening.

"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 in public — most executions in Iran are conducted in secret," he said. "We are calling on the Iranian government to release the pastor immediately."

Nadarkhani, 32, was arrested and sentenced to death in Iran's northern city of Rasht in 2009, Sekulow said.

An appeals court upheld his sentence last year after he refused to reconvert to Islam, his lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told Reuters.

Nadarkhani, a member of the Protestant evangelical Church of Iran and a father of two, had been given three chances to recant by the appeals court, Dadkhah told Reuters.

The United States and Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury have called on Iran to save the life of Nadarkhani. Iranian leaders have rejected claims by Western human rights groups that the Islamic Republic pressures religious minorities. Iranian pastor Christianity Islam
Source: msnbc.com

Most Read Stories

Baba Jukwa predicts the fall of Jonathan Moyo | 19435 views
Dead woman returns home in tattered clothes after her burial | 18998 views
SA Cop caught on camera having sex, suspended | 18122 views
Baba Jukwa promises to reveal more Zanu-PF dark secrets | 15498 views
Pastor impregnates 6 married women from his church | 14853 views
Boy (16) gets stuck while having sex with a married woman | 12959 views