An Iranian Christian who threatened to end his life by starving himself to death after he was sentenced to 15 years in jail has been released on bail.
Amin Afshar-Naderi wrote a powerful open letter to the authorities asking, 'What have I done against you and our country that made you hate me this much? I have learned from the Bible to love my enemies and to pray for those who hate me. But what have you actually learned?'
He had to sign over property deeds worth US $80,000 to secure his release pending an appeal, according to World Watch Monitor.
He is said to be 'very unwell'.
Afshar-Naderi was arrested with three other men for 'acting against national security by organising and conducting house-churches' and received 10-year sentences; Afshar-Naderi received an extra five years for 'blasphemy'. One of them, Hadi Asgari, remains in prison, though a convert, Kaviyan Fallah-Mohammadi, and their pastor, Victor Bet-Tamraz, are already out on bail.
Last week another imprisoned Iranian Christian began a hunger strike to protest against Iran's treatment of converts to Christianity.
Ebrahim Firouzi, 30, who has five years left of his own sentence for 'acting against national security', wrote his own statement criticising the Iranian government and condemning the 'unjust and hefty verdicts and sentences against new Christian believers and converts to the point that in recent months tens of Christians have been sentenced to long years of imprisonment'.
