Russian church hails release of Iranian pastor sentenced to death
TOKYO. Sept 17 (Interfax) - The Moscow Patriarchate has hailed the release of protestant pastor Youcef Nadarkhani in Iran.
"We are very glad about this event and we are hoping it will promote interreligious dialogue, which is so needed in these days," Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Hiilarion, the head of the external Church Relations, told reporters in Tokyo.
Nadarkhani, 35, was released under a court ruling on September 8, Metropolitan Hillarion said.
Nadarhani was arrested in 2009. The pastor's detention was preceded by his address to the authorities, in which he contested the law of the Iranian province of Gilyan, which required all schoolchildren, including his son, to study the Koran. According to information possessed by investigators, the pastor conducted church services, preached the Gospel, and baptized people in his home and coordinated the activities of 400 home churches in Iran.
On September 22, 2010, he was sentenced to death. The sentence drew broad public response worldwide. Specifically, the White House condemned the decision and U.S. pastor Terry Jones burned the Koran to protest his Iranian colleague's arrest.
After being sentenced, Nadarhani filed an appeal with the Iranian Supreme Court. In June 2011, the court ruled to stay his execution and returned the case back to Gilyan for a re-trial. The pastor was asked to go back to Islam many times to avoid execution, but he refused.
In September 2011, Patriarch Kirill asked Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei to pardon the pastor and Metropolitan Hillarion made the same request to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.
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