Release Saeed Abedini

Floor Speech

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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