ACLJ: Saeed Expresses 'Immense Gratitude' to His Supporters
Saeed Abedini is saying "thank you" to everyone who prayed and worked to bring about his freedom after being held for nearly three-and-a-half years in an Iranian prison.
Speaking Monday from a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, Saeed shared his thanks in a phone conversation with Jay Sekulow, chief legal counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.
"He wished to express to everyone who has really engaged on his behalf across the country and across the world his immense gratitude," ACLJ's Matt Clark told CBN News.
"He just wanted to express to Jay, to the ACLJ, to the members, to all those who have been praying and been advocating, been signing peitions...he just wanted to express his immense gratitude," he said.
More than 1.1 million people signed petitions for Saeed's release at the ACLJ website. Clark called his freedom "a tremendous victory, the prayers of many millions across the world have been answered."
With Saeed's freedom won, the ACLJ will now turn its attention to helping other Christians who are still suffering persecution around the globe.
"We were brought on board to do two things: to keep him alive as we advocated for his freedom, for his release and now he is released and so now we move on to the next case," Clark said.
"There are hundreds and thousands who are still imprisoned for their Christian beliefs today," he continued. "There is genocide going on in the Middle East and those are the things that we will continue to press forward with as we engage in our international advocacy for the persecuted church."
The ACLJ worked on Saeed's behalf for nearly the entire time he was imprisoned, meeting with world leaders, advocating at the United Nations, and working with members of Congress.
The group also helped arrange a meeting with President Barack Obama in 2015 for Naghmeh Abedini where she asked the president to do more to see her husband set free.
