{"id":3754,"date":"2011-07-02T22:14:50","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T02:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=3754"},"modified":"2011-07-02T22:14:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-03T02:14:50","slug":"iran-supreme-court-to-christian-convert-return-to-islam-or-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/iran-supreme-court-to-christian-convert-return-to-islam-or-die","title":{"rendered":"Iran Supreme Court to Christian convert: Return to Islam or die"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence of a Christian\u00a0pastor for leaving Islam. He\u00a0was reported to\u00a0have been given a choice\u00a0on Saturday, July 2, to repudiate his faith in Christ or be executed.<\/p>\n

Yousef Nadarkhani, 33, had appealed to the Supreme Court after he was sentenced to death in 2010 \u00a0on charges of “apostasy”, or abandoning Islam, by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Iran’s Gilan\u00a0Province.<\/p>\n

The advocacy group Middle East Concern, which has closely followed the case, said his lawyers\u00a0have yet to receive written confirmation of the Supreme Court’s ruling, “but understand\u00a0that the [death] sentence could be implemented at any time, unless he recants his Christian faith.”<\/p>\n

Yousef, who\u00a0has been in prison since\u00a0October 2009, was a pastor\u00a0in the evangelical ‘Church of Iran’\u00a0underground house church network in the northern city of Rasht.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE to read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence of a Christian\u00a0pastor for leaving Islam. He\u00a0was reported to\u00a0have been given a choice\u00a0on Saturday, July 2, to repudiate his faith in Christ or be executed. Yousef Nadarkhani, 33, had appealed to the Supreme Court after he was sentenced to death in 2010 \u00a0on charges of “apostasy”, or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1006,55,8,966],"tags":[2204,2257,2208,2201,2242],"class_list":["post-3754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-iran","category-islam","category-news","category-persecution","tag-christian","tag-iran","tag-islam","tag-news","tag-persecution"],"yoast_head":"\nIran Supreme Court to Christian convert: Return to Islam or die<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/iran-supreme-court-to-christian-convert-return-to-islam-or-die\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iran Supreme Court to Christian convert: Return to Islam or die\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence of a Christian\u00a0pastor for leaving Islam. 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