[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12423]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         RELEASE SAEED ABEDINI

  (Mr. FRANKS of Arizona asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to cochair the 
International Religious Freedom Caucus here in the Congress. In that 
capacity, it's also my privilege to participate in the Defending 
Freedoms Project, a bipartisan effort for Members of Congress to adopt 
a prisoner of conscience.
  My office has adopted Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor and an 
American citizen from Idaho who is currently imprisoned in Iran for his 
faith. Iran's tyrannical attempts to, in the words of Ronald Reagan, 
``stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people'' 
were again exposed to the world after the imprisonment of Pastor 
Abedini, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison while working to build 
an orphanage in Iran.
  Mr. Speaker, Martin Luther King said:

       Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

  Pastor Abedini's case is a demonstration to the world of the far-
reaching implications of even a single instance of human rights abuse.
  I would call again upon Iran to immediately release Pastor Abedini so 
he can return to Idaho to be with his family.

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