Iranian President Gets Mega-Tweets - Calling On Him To Release American Pastor Saeed Abedini

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which is working to secure the release of American Pastor Saeed Abedini from an Iranian prison, today launched a massive Twitter campaign to contact Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif – urging them to free Pastor Saeed.

"This represents a tremendous outpouring of concern for Pastor Saeed," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. "It is clear that the power of social media is significant and that thousands of people want to send a message directly to the leadership in Iran: free Pastor Saeed – he is no threat to the security of Iran. We continue to call on Iran to release this U.S. citizen and return him to is family in the United States."

The ACLJ reached out through ACLJ's "Be Heard" website, our project for the persecuted church, and the response has been overwhelming.

Within minutes, hundreds of tweets hit President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif's Twitter page.

The ACLJ says more than 1,400 Tweets were sent in just a matter of hours this morning with additional Tweets continuing to go out.

The Twitter campaign coincides with the resumption of nuclear negotiations with Iran and comes as Pastor Saeed, a U.S. citizen, remains imprisoned in Iran's Rajai Shahr Prison – a facility where has was transferred to earlier this month – a facility where prisoner on prisoner violence, including murder, is routine.

The ACLJ has been working in this country and abroad to call attention to the plight of Pastor Saeed in an effort to secure his freedom.

Last week, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution calling for the release of this U.S. citizen and key members of the European Parliament wrote a letter raising Pastor Saeed's case.

A similar resolution is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to take up the resolution (H. Res. 147) today.  These statements, resolutions, and letters from U.S. and international government leaders are key to Pastor Saeed's case.

In addition to the Twitter campaign, the ACLJ has launched a significant online social media campaign on behalf of Pastor Saeed at BeHeardProject.com.

Pastor Saeed is serving an eight year prison sentence simply because of his Christian beliefs. He has been imprisoned now for more than one year. The ACLJ represents Pastor Saeed's wife, Naghmeh, and their two children who live in Idaho.

Led by ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the American Center for Law and Justice is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has affiliated offices in Israel, Russia, Kenya, France, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe. The ACLJ is online at aclj.org.

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SOURCE American Center for Law and Justice