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IRAN’S PERSECUTION OF AMERICAN PASTOR

ABEDINI WORSENS

JOINT HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

AND THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Serial No. 113–148

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

TREY RADEL, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

LUKE MESSER, Indiana 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

KAREN BASS, California 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

TREY RADEL, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

LUKE MESSER, Indiana 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

(V)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Katrina Lantos Swett, Ph.D., vice chair, U.S. Commission on International 

Religious Freedom ................................................................................................ 9

Ms. Naghmeh Abedini, wife of Pastor Saeed Abedini .......................................... 24

Mr. Jordan Sekulow, executive director, American Center for Law and Justice ......................................................................................................................... 31

Daniel Calingaert, Ph.D., executive vice president, Freedom House .................. 39

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Katrina Lantos Swett, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ............................................... 12

Ms. Naghmeh Abedini: Prepared statement ......................................................... 27

Mr. Jordan Sekulow: Prepared statement ............................................................. 34

Daniel Calingaert, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ..................................................... 41

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 64

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 65

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global 

Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations: 

Photograph of Naghmeh Abedini and her children ........................................... 66

Statement for the record from the Honorable Bill Cassidy, a Representative 

in Congress from the State of Louisiana ........................................................ 67

The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress from the 

State of Florida, and chairman, Subcommittee on the Middle East and 

North Africa: Material submitted for the record ............................................... 68

The Honorable Mark Meadows, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of North Carolina: Prepared statement .............................................................. 70

(1)

IRAN’S PERSECUTION OF AMERICAN PASTOR 

ABEDINI WORSENS 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2013

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

AND SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The committees met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m., in room 

2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith 

(chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global 

Human Rights, and International Organizations) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. The subcommittees will come to order. This is an important meeting of two subcommittees, the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa. We are joined by our very distinguished chairman of that committee who is also chairman emeritus of the full committee and 

who has been absolutely, with a laser beam focus, looking at issues 

pertaining to and relating to Iran for the entirety of the last decade 

or more, so I want to thank her for her leadership. 

At our full committee hearing on Tuesday, the full Foreign Affairs Committee, I asked Secretary of State John Kerry whether he 

had raised Pastor Saeed Abedini’s release during the Iranian nuclear talks. I read him the following advance excerpt of the testimony of Naghmeh Abedini, wife of Pastor Saeed Abedini, who is 

our very distinguished witness this morning, and as we all know, 

who remains imprisoned and subject to torture in Iran. And this 

is what she will say in pertinent part and this is what I had read 

to the Secretary of State: ‘‘While I am thankful for President 

Obama’s willingness to express concern about my husband and the 

other imprisoned Americans in Iran,’’ she said, ‘‘during his recent 

phone conversation with Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, I was 

devastated to learn that the administration didn’t even ask for my 

husband’s release when directly seated across the table from the 

leaders of the government that holds him captive.’’

She went on to say, ‘‘My husband is suffering because he is a 

Christian. He is suffering because he is an American. Yet, his own 

government, at least the executive and diplomatic representatives, 

has abandoned him. Don’t we owe it to him as a nation to stand 

up for his human rights, for his freedom?’’

2

Secretary Kerry acknowledged that he had not done that, he had 

not raised in the negotiations with the Iranians on the nuclear 

issue, confirming the awful report that Naghmeh had already 

heard. 

So as we speak, Pastor Abedini remains imprisoned in Iran, 

sharing a cell with violent criminals who have more than once surrounded Pastor Abedini as he tried to sleep, wielding knives and 

threatening his life. Pastor Saeed Abedini is an American citizen. 

He went to Iran last year to build an orphanage for Iranian children. He had been arrested in Iran before, but released and told 

he could enter and exit the country for humanitarian aid work if 

he agreed to cease pastoring house churches. 

As Pastor Abedini’s wife, Naghmeh, will testify today, he accepted that proposal, but Iran did not uphold its end of the agreement. 

Pastor Abedini was arrested in July 2012, imprisoned, and tried for 

sharing his religious beliefs and thereby supposedly undermining 

the security of Iran. Imagine that, you share the good news of the 

Gospel and you threaten the security of Iran. But he was there to 

establish an orphanage. 

He was denied contact with his attorney until just before the 

trial. The trial was not public, and he and his attorney were barred 

from participating in key portions of the trial, following which a 

judge sentenced him to 8 years in prison. His appeals have been 

denied. 

In prison, he has been repeatedly beaten, denied medical care, 

and held in solitary confinement. While nuclear talks played out on 

the world stage, Iran moved Pastor Abedini to a prison notorious 

for housing the worst criminals in Iran. It is called Rajai Shahr. 

The very fact that Pastor Abedini was moved to a dangerous prison 

than the one he was at previously was certainly dangerous itself, 

in the middle of negotiations confirms that the Iranians recognized 

him as a potential factor in the negotiations. 

Since August 2012, the United States has reportedly released 

four Iranians, including most recently a high-ranking scientist, who 

were imprisoned in the U.S. for sanctions violations. Speaking for 

myself, I question whether these releases are unrelated to the nuclear talks. Were they allowed out in order to create a better atmosphere so the talks could go forward? And yet, American citizen 

Saeed Abedini remains in a hellhole prison in Iran. 

The U.S. Government must not waste another opportunity to secure the release of this brave and courageous father of two and devoted husband and a great pastor. His case needs to be front and 

center in the next round of U.S.-Iranian negotiations. Time is running out. Naghmeh, Rebecca, and Jacob need their husband and father home and they need him home now. 

I would like to yield to the distinguished gentlelady, the chairman of the other subcommittee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Smith. We are 

blessed in Congress to have a leader of human rights with the passion, the intelligence of Chris Smith. We thank him for his ongoing and relentless pursuit of liberty throughout the world and respect for human rights. And we are so honored also to look upon 

this beautiful portrait of our former Chairman Tom Lantos. And 

Chris Smith and Chairman Lantos were a great team. But he is 

3

still with us and we are so fortunate to have one of his daughters 

carrying on his work. 

And I would like to thank Ms. Abedini for joining us today. Our 

thoughts and our prayers are with you. They are with your family, 

your husband. And we commend you for your determination and 

perseverance to obtain his release. 

Last month our Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, 

and then the full Foreign Affairs Committee, as you know, unanimously passed House Resolution 147, calling on the Iranian regime 

to immediately release Pastor Saeed and condemning the regime’s 

ongoing persecution of religious minorities. This resolution sends a 

strong message on behalf of Pastor Saeed, his family, and the Iranian people whose human rights suffer under this brutal and this 

bill states that we stand with them in solidarity and we will continue to press for Pastor Saeed’s release, and it calls upon the Government of Iran to respect the rights of its citizens. 

Although we are here to discuss in particular the plight of Pastor 

Saeed, we must also highlight that there are other Americans languishing in Iran’s prisons or being held captive by the regime, like 

South Florida resident and constituent of Congressman Ted 

Deutch, the ranking member of our subcommittee, and that is Bob 

Levinson. Last month, Bob became the longest-held American hostage in history, now in captivity in Iran for over 6 years. Earlier 

this week, I joined as a co-sponsor of House Resolution 435, introduced by Ranking Member Deutch, which calls for Iran’s cooperation and immediate return of Bob Levinson. 

So we are here today because Rouhani’s empty promises aren’t 

only about Iran’s nuclear programs, but about the reforms that he 

promised which have gone unfulfilled as the regime continues its 

policy of systematic and widespread suppression of human rights. 

On the campaign, Rouhani’s charming words indicated that the regime will ease its repression of social freedoms and human rights. 

However, we must judge this regime not by its words, but by its 

actions, and in this regard, it has utterly failed. 

Since Rouhani took office, the rate of executions in Iran has 

sharply accelerated, with more than 300 executions carried out 

since August alone. And on September 2012, Pastor Saeed Abedini, 

an American citizen, was convicted on bogus charges and imprisoned after being accused by the regime of undermining national security. But his only so-called crimes were what? Working to establish an orphanage and practicing his Christian faith. He was supporting and ministering to churches in private homes, one of the 

only places in Iran where Christians and other religious minorities 

can practice their faith despite the fear of state persecution. In August, Pastor Saeed’s unjust 8-year sentence was upheld, and last 

month, as we know, he was transferred to a brutal prison reserved 

for Iran’s most violent criminals, where his life is in constant danger. 

Sadly, the plight of Pastor Saeed is not an isolated incident, but 

it is symptomatic of the Iranian regime’s hostility toward religious 

minorities. In October, four Iranian Christians were sentenced to 

80 lashes for drinking sacramental wine during communion, and 

this past summer an Iranian Christian convert was sentenced to 10 

years in prison for distributing Bibles. And it is not just Christians 

4

who are persecuted, but others including Muslim minorities and reformers, who also suffer for their beliefs. For example, the Baha’i 

community is systematically targeted and persecuted by the regime, and more than 100 members of this community and its leadership are imprisoned. In fact, under Iranian law, Baha’i members 

can be killed with impunity. For these flagrant violations, the U.S. 

has designated Iran as Country of Particular Concern since 1999, 

a regime that does not respect the fundamental human rights of religious freedom. For many persons this is a central aspect of their 

identity and of their life. This a country that won’t respect other 

freedoms. We saw this when the regime crushed the freedoms of 

speech and assembly during the Green Revolution of 2009, when 

the administration sadly missed a critical opportunity to express 

support for the Iranian people. 

I was a lead sponsor of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria 

Human Rights Act that was signed into law last August, which expanded sanctions related to human rights abuses in Iran, and 

though the administration has selectively applied some of these 

sanctions, more needs to be done. We must enforce all of the sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes on regime officials responsible for committing human rights abuses. If the international 

community doesn’t hold this regime accountable, no one will. 

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how we can help 

bring Pastor Saeed home, reunite him with his wife and his children, where he belongs. I thank the chairman again for holding 

this important hearing. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Chairwoman Ileana RosLehtinen for your very eloquent statement and again for your leadership on all things pertaining to Iran. 

Mr. Meadows? 

Mr. MEADOWS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Madam Chairman 

for calling this hearing and I thank each of you for being here. And 

for some of you who we have had here before, thank you for fighting for those who many times don’t have a voice. And so I have got 

an opening statement, but I am going to speak probably more from 

the heart instead of going to that. 

Right now, we are in a critical time. We have negotiations going 

on with a country that quite frankly is not built on a foundation 

of trust. We don’t trust them. They don’t trust us. And yet, here 

we are fundamentally dealing with an issue with Pastor Saeed 

Abedini and his detainment and imprisonment in a situation that 

we would find just deplorable. But more importantly, the message 

is not getting out because so many times when we think of people 

in prison, we think of them there for just cause and I had the opportunity to look into this in detail. And yet, here is a man who 

agreed with the intelligence ministry not to conduct a particular 

activity for many years ago, would be granted to be able to come 

back and forth and work to establish an orphanage that was sanctioned by the Iranian Government. And so here he was supposedly 

working with the government under their approval and yet, he is 

tried and convicted and put in prison, but really not even with due 

process. 

So we are embarking right now on a situation where we are 

working with a nation on something far greater than that with reVerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:33 Jun 25, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\131212\86006 SHIRL
5

gards to a nuclear agreement. That can only be negotiated based 

on mutual respect and trust and yet the foundation of trust has 

been violated with this particular situation and it is not being rectified. Over 440 days without a husband and a father. How many 

more Christmases are going to come and pass where this injustice 

is not rectified? If there is any message that Foreign Minister Zarif 

and the Iranian Government, if they want to have a message of 

trust and mutual trust, this request of releasing this individual at 

a minimum would say we are trying to negotiate in good faith and 

it would send messages to the entire nation that they want to operate in good faith. 

And so I think the message needs to be that if they cannot release this individual and others held without due process, then how 

are we to trust them on much greater positions that have national 

and international consequences? I would ask Mr. Chairman that 

my full opening statement be submitted for the record, if possible. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Meadows, thank you very much. The chair recognizes Mr. Chabot, the chairman of the Asia and Pacific Subcommittee. We have four subcommittee chairmen here today, 

again, a testament to the concern that is shared across the aisle 

and throughout the entire House of Representatives. 

Mr. Chabot. 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you. I will be brief. I commend Chairmen 

Smith and Ros-Lehtinen for holding this timely hearing today. In 

light of recent developments in U.S.-Iranian relations, the case of 

Pastor Saeed Abedini and his imprisonment raises very grave concerns. If Iran expects to engage in a more transparent and honest 

relationship with the U.S. and other members of the global community, it must cease its egregious human rights abuses and adopt 

standards practiced by most of the civilized world. 

I think my colleagues would agree that the imprisonment of Pastor Abedini is a prime example of Iran’s use of abhorrent practices 

to deny human rights protections to its religious minorities. If the 

Obama administration is going to negotiate with Iran concerning 

economic sanctions, the release of Pastor Abedini must be a priority. It should have been a precondition of negotiations from the 

start. I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Chairman Chabot. Ranking Member 

Deutch. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it. Thanks 

for hosting this hearing on Pastor Abedini, detained American citizens, and the broader human rights situation in Iran. I also want 

to thank our witnesses, especially Ms. Abedini for being here today. 

Please know that Congress is committed to bringing your husband 

and all three detained Americans home as soon as possible. 

Our legislature is divided on many issues, but I am proud to say 

that Congress has been and always will be united in its support for 

international religious freedom and for protecting Americans overseas. That is why I am proud to support legislation from Mr. 

Cassidy, that calls for the release of Pastor Abedini and condemns 

the Government of Iran for its persecution of religious minorities. 

At a time when Iran is seeking to reengage with the international community, its ongoing persecution of Pastor Abedini is 

utterly deplorable. His arbitrary arrest and the complete lack of 

6

due process is bad enough, but his transfer to a more dangerous 

prison that is filled with Iran’s most violent criminals demonstrates 

why the United States must do everything in our power to end his 

continued and unjust imprisonment. Unfortunately, Pastor 

Abedini’s persecution is just the latest in a string of appalling actions the Iranian regime has taken against American citizens. 

Mr. Amir Hekmati has also been unfairly detained in Iran for 

more than 2 years. And Iran is also suspected of having significant 

knowledge about the whereabouts of my constituent, Robert 

Levinson. As many of you know, in March 2007, Mr. Levinson was 

taken hostage while visiting Iran’s Kish Island. A retired FBI 

agent, husband, father to seven children, and grandfather of two, 

Mr. Levinson has missed 6 years worth of birthdays, anniversaries, 

weddings, and other milestones. November 26th was this 2,455th 

day in captivity, making him the longest held American hostage in 

our history. In response to his situation, this week my colleague 

and friend, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen and I introduced H. Res. 435 urging 

Iran’s Government to cooperate in his case and return Mr. 

Levinson home to his family as soon as possible. 

Yet, Iran’s egregious human rights record is not limited to American citizens, nor is its vile mistreatment of its people new. Iran 

routinely imposes severe restrictions on expression, association, 

and assembly. Political activists and human rights defenders are 

routinely and arbitrarily arrested. Torture is common and is committed with impunity. Women, religious and ethnic minorities and 

members of the LGBT community are all routinely persecuted. 

Since taking office, President Rouhani has spoken about the need 

to repair Iran’s relationship with the world and to ensure the 

rights of his people. Unfortunately, this rhetoric has not been 

matched with action. Hundreds of political prisoners remain in 

prison including former presidential candidates, Mir-Hossein 

Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who recently spent their 1,000th day 

under house arrest. This year alone, more than 500 Iranians have 

been executed, yielding Iran’s highest number of executions ever in 

a rate that doubles Ahmadinejad’s last year in office. And in the 

past few months, there has been a stunning wave of repression targeting the media and civil society that included banning of a prominent reformist daily and the arrests of a number of prominent political actors. 

All of this shows that Iran continues to flagrantly violate basic 

human rights and is doing nothing to uphold Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which it is a signatory, that 

guarantees the right to freedom, religion, conscience, and thought. 

While most of the world is focused on the nuclear deal with Iran, 

today provides a timely opportunity to remind the people of Iran 

that we stand with them in their quest for dignity and for freedom. 

Preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons capabilities is our 

paramount objective, but it must not, it must not impact our support for human rights in Iran. We must continue to press Iran to 

treat their people with due process and we must act to ensure the 

release of all political prisoners including Pastor Abedini, Amir 

Hekmati, and Robert Levinson. This hearing is an important step 

in this process, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back. 

7

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Deutch. Ms. Walorski, 

Congressman. 

Ms. WALORSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Chairman RosLehtinen for allowing me to sit in on our committee today. I appreciate it. It is a very gracious offer. 

This case is one of great personal importance to me and I am 

grateful to all the witnesses for being here today. Ms. Abedini, my 

family and I pray for you every day and for your husband. My husband and I spent 4 years as missionaries in Eastern Europe involved in orphanage ministry as well and we appreciate your heart 

and can relate to your heart and we appreciate that. 

I am a co-sponsor of the resolution calling for your husband’s release. I have signed on to multiple letters in his behalf and frankly, 

I am deeply embarrassed which is why I wanted to be able to come 

and sit in on this hearing today. Congress should not have to urge 

the administration to act in a case like this which involves the 

state sponsor of terrorism imprisoning an American citizen and I 

am deeply disappointed that the release was not a prerequisite for 

any Iranian peace deal. 

Once again, I would like to publicly urge our President and Secretary Kerry to do everything they can to secure the release of not 

only your husband, but the other Americans being held as well. I 

would also say that I am deeply, profoundly impacted by the increase in religious persecution under President Rouhani as we in 

this country so deeply value religious freedom and believe in religions free of persecution around the world that people should be 

able to hold their beliefs and be able to express their religious opinions as well. So I would just like to thank you for being here today 

and offer my support and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing 

me to graciously sit on your committee. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Walorski. The chair recognizes the 

gentlelady from New York, Ms. Meng. 

Ms. MENG. I would like to thank our subcommittee chairs and 

ranking members for calling today’s important hearing. We must 

keep our attention on the persecution of Pastor Abedini and insist 

that our Government officials demand his release in all meetings 

they have with their Iranian counterparts. Each and every human 

life is precious and as Members of Congress, we have a particular 

duty to look out for our citizens who are persecuted and wrongly 

jailed in distant lands. The Ayatollahs in Iran must know where 

we stand and must know that we view their continued mistreatment of Pastor Abedini as indicative of a lack of good faith on a 

range of other issues. 

Here in Congress, we will do whatever is in our power to bring 

back your husband, Ms. Abedini, Amir Hekmati, and Robert 

Levinson back home to their families here in America. Thank you 

and I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Ms. Meng. I would like to recognize Chairman Frank Wolf, and just before I do, note that last 

March, Chairman Wolf as chairman of the Lantos Commission welcomed Ms. Abedini to the Congress and she made a point at that 

hearing that the State Department had said, ‘‘There is nothing that 

they could do.’’ Chairman Wolf’s hearing was a catalyst for at least 

some engagement and some high-level response and I want to 

8

thank the chairman for that. And I would also note parenthetically 

that Dr. Swett is the vice chair of the Commission on International 

Religious Freedom. That commission was created by Mr. Wolf’s bill, 

the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and so we do have 

an expert here and a man who really made a huge difference and 

I recognize the chairman. 

Mr. WOLF. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have no comments. I just 

wanted to welcome the witnesses and say hello to Ms. Abedini. 

Thank you very much. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much. I would like to now welcome 

our very distinguished witnesses, beginning first with Dr. Katrina 

Lantos Swett who is the vice chair of the U.S. Commission on 

International Religious Freedom, an independent U.S. Government 

commission that monitors the universal rights to freedom of religion or belief abroad. She established the Lantos Foundation for 

Human Rights and Justice in 2008 and serves as its president and 

chief executive officer. This organization is proudly carrying on the 

unique legacy of her dad, the late Congressman Tom Lantos with 

whom many of us served and we are very, very honored to call him 

friend. She currently teaches human rights and foreign policy at 

Tufts University and has also worked on Capitol Hill as a consultant. 

We will then hear from Naghmeh Abedini, wife of Pastor Saeed 

Abedini. She is a U.S. citizen and was born in Iran and moved to 

the United States with her family when she was nine. Her husband 

Pastor Saeed Abedini, as we all know, is currently serving an 8-

year sentence in the brutal Rajai Shahr prison in Iran. In 2002, in 

a visit to Tehran, Naghmeh met Saeed and began assisting him in 

his ministry to house churches in Tehran and they were married 

in 2004. She has been apart from her husband for more than a 

year as he remains imprisoned. They have two young children, Rebecca and Jacob, and no one has done more on behalf of any imprisoned person that I have ever seen, and I have been here 33 

years, than this very devoted, and very articulate wife of Saeed 

Abedini. 

We will then hear from Mr. Jordan Seulow who is Pastor 

Abedini’s attorney. He is the executive director of the American 

Center for Law and Justice. He is also the host of radio and television programs featuring elected officials. He oversees much of 

ACLJ’s international work, engaging with government officials and 

international leaders on human rights issues around the world, including, and especially, religious freedom. 

We will then hear from Daniel Calingaert who is executive vice 

president at Freedom House where he oversees contributions to 

policy debate on democracy and human rights issues and outreach. 

He previously supervised Freedom House’s civil society and media 

programs worldwide and contributes frequently to policy and media 

discussions on Internet freedom. Prior to joining Freedom House, 

Dr. Calingaert was associate director of the American University 

Center for Democracy and Election Management and associate director of the Commission on Federal Election Reform. He also 

served as director for Asia and as deputy director of Eastern Europe at the International Republican Institute. 

Dr. Swett, if you could begin. 

9

STATEMENT OF KATRINA LANTOS SWETT, PH.D., VICE CHAIR, 

U.S. COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. Thank you so much. It is always a great 

honor for me to appear before this committee and to have the 

chance to speak with some of the very distinguished colleagues of 

my late father, and of course, I am always mindful when I am here 

that I am testifying under his watchful eye and so I will try to be 

on good behavior. I also want to just say briefly what a privilege 

it is to testify with Ms. Abedini. She is a towering example of love 

and devotion and courage. And I just want to say to you that you 

will prevail in your wonderful mission to free your husband. I remember another beautiful young wife, Avital Sharansky, from another generation who tirelessly worked walking the halls of Congress and meeting with the media to press for freedom for her husband, Natan Sharansky, and she was ultimately successfully. You 

will be as well and we are all standing with you and behind you 

and next to you. 

I want to thank Representatives Smith and Ros-Lehtinen and 

your subcommittees for holding this hearing and inviting USCIRF 

to testify. With your approval, I will submit my written testimony 

for the record. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, so ordered. 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. Thank you. I commend your focus on the 

continued deterioration of religious freedom conditions in Iran, 

most notably for Christians and other religious minorities and for 

highlighting the egregious treatment of Pastor Saeed Abedini. 

USCIRF stands with Ms. Abedini and her family, has called repeatedly for the Pastor’s release, and urges the U.S. Government 

at the highest levels to demand his release. 

Unfortunately, the appalling treatment of Pastor Abedini reflects 

the dismal reality of religious freedom and human rights in Iran 

today. The rights and beliefs defining the Iranian dictatorship’s 

character remains self-consciously religious and inescapably theocratic. Any Iranian dissenting from the government’s interpretation 

of Shia Islam may be considered the state’s enemy and a potential 

target for abuse. Because religion matters significantly to Iran’s 

Government, we must look at how the government treats the right 

to religious freedom to assess the overall status or direction of 

human rights. That lends also as necessary to evaluate Iran’s current President, Hassan Rouhani. The number of Christians and Baha’is jailed during his short tenure has increased and a crackdown 

on Protestant Christians has brought numerous arrests. 

In June 2009, Iran reached a watershed moment when after a 

national election, citizens protested the legitimacy of its outcome. 

Tehran responded with brutal repression. Since then, human rights 

and religious freedom conditions have worsened to levels unseen 

since the early years after the ’79 revolution. 

The United States, since 1999, annually, has designated Iran a 

Country of Particular Concern or CPC. Its government continues to 

rank among the world’s worst religious freedom abusers engaging 

in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations. 

Members of religious minorities, including Baha’is or Zoroastrians, 

Christians, Jews, Muslims belonging to minority Sufi and Sunni 

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sects, and even Muslims part of Iran’s Shia majority have had their 

fundamental rights abused. 

Among Iran’s minority religious communities, the Baha’is long 

have been subject to particularly severe religious freedom abuses. 

Besides its severe mistreatment of Baha’is, Iran’s Government discriminates against and represses Christians. While all of Iran’s 

Christians face the regime that restricts their rights, Tehran reserves particularly harsh treatment for Protestant Christians. Next 

to Baha’is authorities view the Protestant community as the most 

serious competitor of the theocratic government for Iranians’ hearts 

and minds. 

Iranian Christians, including Protestants, constitute less than 1 

percent of Iran’s 75 million citizens and it reflects the fundamental 

weakness and insecurity of the regime that they should consider 

them such a threat. Unlike Iran’s ethnic Christian population, the 

vast majority of Iran’s Protestants are converts from Islam. While 

conversion is a fundamental freedom that international law and 

covenants guarantee, Iran’s Government views conversion from 

Islam as an act against Islam and Iran’s character as an Islamic 

state, in other words, as an act of apostasy, punishable by death. 

Revolutionary Courts also charge converts with political crimes 

such as acting against national security or contact with a foreign 

enemy. Hundreds of Christians, mostly Protestants, have been arbitrarily arrested and detained. The U.N. special rapporteur’s October report found that since 2010 more than 300 Christians have 

been arrested and detained. As of July, at least 20 Christians were 

detained or imprisoned. In a particularly outrageous miscarriage of 

justice, Judge Pir-Abassi, notorious for perpetrating religious freedom violations sentenced Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-born American 

pastor on January 27, 2013 to 8 years in prison for ‘‘threatening 

the national security of Iran.’’ His crimes? Participating in Iran’s 

house church movement and raising money for an orphanage. 

Human rights groups view his trial, like those of other condemned, 

as unfair and the legal process deeply flawed. He spent many 

weeks in solitary confinement and suffered mental and physical 

abuse while at Evin Prison. Last month, Pastor Abedini was transferred to the Gohardasht Prison outside Tehran which is known for 

its harsh and unsanitary conditions. 

Below are selected USCIRF recommendations. Others and more 

detailed ones can be found in our written testimony. First, the U.S. 

Government should continue to designate Iran as a Country of Particular Concern. Second, Congress should reauthorize for multiple 

years, and the President should sign into law, the Lautenberg 

amendment which has provided a lifeline for Iranian religious minorities. Third, the U.S. at the highest level should call on the Iranian Government to release all prisoners who have been jailed due 

to their religion or belief and drop all charges against those with 

pending cases, including, and I hope you will bear with me as I 

show the pictures of these individuals, because we must never forget, these are real flesh and blood human beings who are being 

persecuted. 

So those we call upon to be released are Saeed Abedini, Farshid 

Fathi, Benham Irani, Vahid Hakkani, and there are too many others of these Christians, but some of them are noted in my written 

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testimony. Among the Shia Muslims who are persecuted, Ayatollah 

Hossein Kazemeni Boroujerdi, the Baha’i Seven including Fariba 

Kamalabadi and Mahvash Sabet, the Baha’i educators, Faran 

Hesami and Riaz Sobhani; and finally, the Sufi activist, HamidReza Moradi. 

USCIRF encourages representatives and this is really directed at 

each one of you, to join the Defending Freedoms Project, an initiative of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in conjunction 

with USCIRF and Amnesty International. Members adopt a prisoner of conscience and advocate on their behalf and shine a light 

on the conditions in the country and the government that imprisons them. The U.S. Government should continue to identify Iranian 

Government agencies and officials responsible for particularly severe violations of religious freedom, bar them from entry into the 

U.S. and freeze their assets. 

My written testimony notes nine individuals, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Just last week, national security advisor, Susan Rice, reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to continue to sanction Iran’s human rights abusers. We welcome further action by the Treasury and State Departments, especially given that the European Union has far outpaced the United 

States in identifying and sanctioning these violators. 

Iran’s religious freedom abuses demand the world’s attention and 

action, especially given that the Iranian Government may use efforts to resolve the nuclear issue to divert attention from the increasing mistreatment of Christians and other religious minorities. 

We cannot let that happen. If Pastor Abedini and religious minorities in Iran ever needed a voice to condemn Iran’s abusive practices 

it is now. The Obama administration and Members of Congress 

should insist that Iran demonstrate its commitment to peaceful intentions abroad by ceasing its war at home against its own people 

and their fundamental rights including the right of freedom of religion or belief. Thank you and I look forward to answering your 

questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Lantos Swett follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Dr. Swett, I just want to thank you very much for 

your testimony and for bringing additional focus on all of the other 

imprisoned individuals who are there because of their faith. 

Ms. Abedini, it is a high honor and privilege to welcome you to 

the two subcommittees. 

STATEMENT OF MS. NAGHMEH ABEDINI, WIFE OF PASTOR 

SAEED ABEDINI 

Ms. ABEDINI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the 

subcommittees. My name is Naghmeh Abedini. I have submitted 

my full statement for the record and I would like to use this time 

to tell the story of our family and ask for your assistance. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, your and all the witnesses’ full 

statements and any papers you would like to attach to the record 

will be made a part of the record. 

Ms. ABEDINI. Thank you. When I spoke in front of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in March of this year, I had anticipated that I would battle the Iranian Government for my husband’s freedom. I never anticipated that I would also have to battle 

my own Government and that the journey would become even 

much more difficult than it had been. 

My husband is suffering because he is a Christian. He is suffering because he is an American. Yet, his own government did not 

fight for him when his captors were across the table from them. 

Saeed converted from Islam to Christianity in the year 2000 after 

having a radical encounter with Jesus and in that encounter Jesus 

Christ told Saeed that he was coming back soon and to go preach 

the Gospel. And from there his life was transformed and if he 

would sit here to testify today, he would say he found true joy, 

love, and peace that he could not find in his former religion. 

So today, Saeed sits in that Iranian prison being tortured for his 

faith. He will not deny the faith that has saved him, that his given 

him life. He refuses to deny his faith in Jesus and return to Islam. 

When the Iranian Government sentenced him to 8 years in prison 

in January of this year, they went back to the years 2000 and 

2005, the year of his conversion and the year where the house 

churches were started and he was working under a more moderate 

government. Khatami was the name of the President previous before President Ahmadinejad. And at that time, he was working 

under the supervision of a government-approved building church. 

The Iranian Government was well aware of the house church 

movement and was allowing it. So for them to have arrested him 

in the year 2012 when he was working with the Iranian Government on a government-approved orphanage and to say that his 

crime dated back to 13 years earlier when he was working under 

a different administration, under a different President, was unbelievable. And to say that he was undermining the national security 

of Iran by having started those house churches, Christian gatherings, and in the court hearing, they actually said he conducted 

soft war. It is unbelievable that they would consider peaceful gatherings of Christians an act of war. 

As many of you who have mentioned today, Saeed has been tortured. He has been beaten, abused, and told to deny his Christian 

faith and that if he would return to Islam, he would be freed. He 

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has been in that prison, and the kids and I have not seen him since 

June of last year, but he has been sitting in Evin Prison since September. And recently last month, he was moved to Rajad Shahr 

Prison where his condition has worsened and the kids and I fear 

for his life. 

I want to share a little bit of a personal story here. This is the 

first day of school. It was a very painful time. I am trying to smile. 

But tears were streaming down my face as I got my two kids ready 

for school, knowing that their dad was missing. And as I took them 

to school, I could see their wandering eyes looking at other daddies 

holding their kids and putting them to school. And I was trying to 

distract them, but it was a painful time for them to know that their 

daddy was missing and it was a painful time for me. It has been 

hard. It has been a struggle as a mom watching as my 7-year-old 

and my 5-year-old cry themselves to sleep every single night for the 

last 444 days. And knowing that unless we get Saeed out quickly, 

he might serve the 8 years, or even more, or he might not even survive that prison sentence. 

He wrote a recent letter to my daughter on her seventh birthday 

and he had seen a picture of her and his parents when they visit 

him in prison, they say that when they hold the pictures of the 

kids in front of him, he just cries. And he wrote in a letter, he said,

‘‘It is so hard and so heartbreaking for me to see these pictures 

and to know that I am not there beside you as you grow. I 

came here to help the kids that did not have mommies and 

daddies, but my own kids lost their daddy. This breaks my 

heart so much. I want you to know that I did not want to put 

so my pressure on your little shoulders, my precious children.’’

While I am grateful for the official declaration to national media 

and public acknowledgment from our Government, it is not enough. 

We need to see action to back our rhetoric in the living breathing 

form of Saeed Abedini, alive and well, having been immediately released to the reuniting embrace of our family. Not all Americans 

are Christians, but every American regardless of their belief, needs 

to be reassured and know that our Government will take decisive 

action to protect us if our fundamental rights are violated. 

An American President who has taken his oath of office with 

honorable intention and is attuned to the international issues will 

recognize Iran’s treatment of Saeed for the assault that it is on our 

national security. For Iran’s treatment of Saeed Abedini is not 

about one American citizen experiencing a living nightmare for his 

religious belief. Iran’s treatment of Saeed Abedini is an experiment. 

Iran is curious. How strong is our American President? How serious is he about American security? Would he act immediately with 

firm resolve to protect and to defend? 

Time is of the essence. Iran’s experiment for evaluating the integrity of Americans’ response to assault on her security is almost 

complete. And Iran is not the only country watching our reaction. 

Even if our President can’t see the reality, the rest of the world 

can. In the interest of Americans’ confidence in the competency of 

her government officials, her national security and international 

standing, Saeed Abedini needs to be released now. 

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I want to say that I can’t express how grateful I am to the Members of Congress who have refused to let my husband be forgotten. 

And I would like to end with as we approach Christmas, it is a joyful time of the year, but it is a painful time for our family to celebrate another year without my husband. 

I want to end with this, Saeed is in that prison because he believes ‘‘unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of 

Peace.’’ And this season, I not only pray for the release of my husband, but I hope and I pray that our Government would realize 

where we have fallen from and how far we have fallen and that we 

would return to the source of blessing. May God bless America, the 

land that I love. Thank you. God bless you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Abedini follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Ms. Abedini, thank you so very much for those powerful words and that testimony causes every one of us to redouble 

our efforts to do everything possible to ensure that your husband 

is released immediately, so thank you so very much. 

Mr. Sekulow. 

STATEMENT OF MR. JORDAN SEKULOW, EXECUTIVE 

DIRECTOR, AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE 

Mr. SEKULOW. Chairman Smith and Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, the 

ranking member Deutch, the other co-chairs and chairs of subcommittees that are here today, and members of the subcommittees, I am deeply honored to present this report on behalf of Pastor 

Saeed and Naghmeh Abedini as their attorney, as an organization 

that represents them and their two children. They are American 

children, Rebecca and Jacob. My primary purpose for submitting 

this testimony is to impress upon Congress the desperate need for 

great urgency as Pastor Saeed is in a dire predicament. Congress 

has done more than any branch of government. Congress has been 

there. And it has been bipartisan. 

First, let me begin by thanking you and your staffs for having 

this hearing and we started back in March at the Lantos Commission and now here. Months later, the United States, in an unprecedented move that we did not predict or could not predict then, is 

now sitting with Iran. And it is important for us to point out right 

now that we don’t see this religious liberty at all as a partisan 

issue. So I want to recognize that the unbelievable bipartisan efforts that have occurred within this Congress on behalf of Pastor 

Saeed Abedini we don’t forget that and when we speak out on 

Saeed’s behalf and if we are critical of the administration, we always make sure to mention that there has been that bipartisan 

support. 

I am hopeful that today’s hearing will highlight the commitment 

to this case that so many of you have shown and the world will 

hear the U.S. Government speaking with one voice. It is so clear, 

one voice, in strong defense of our fellow citizen Pastor Saeed 

Abedini, at such a critical juncture with the U.S. Government literally sitting across the table from Iran. We could never have 

imagined that would occur when we first testified before the Lantos 

Commission in March. At the table, for the first time in 34 years. 

We need to ensure that Pastor Saeed and the other Americans 

mentioned here today, wrongfully detained, are seen as not a marginal issue, but an essential, of those ongoing diplomatic talks. Pastor Saeed Abedini, a U.S. citizen, has been unnecessarily separated 

from his wife, Naghmeh and two children for 17 months, 444 days. 

The Islamic Republic of Iran has arbitrarily detained and imprisoned Pastor Saeed, subjecting him to violence and abuse, violating 

both Iranian law and international norms. His trial lacked transparency and due process and yet appeals courts in Tehran upheld 

his conviction, an 8-year prison sentence. Pastor Saeed has exhausted all legal remedies in Iran to appeal this arbitrary conviction and his detention. His freedom now rests solely on the success 

of diplomatic efforts by the United States Government and world 

leaders dedicated to human rights. Now Naghmeh has outlined the 

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time line of Saeed’s case in a more detailed outline as in my submitted remarks. 

Allow me to briefly highlight just a couple of more egregious facts 

about the legal proceedings. First, Saeed was detained arbitrarily 

and while conducting humanitarian work with the full approval of 

the Iranian Government. Next, Saeed was imprisoned and subjected to solitary confinement, without even being informed about 

the charges against him. Third, Saeed was informed of the official 

charges against him less than a week before his sham trial and denied access to his attorney until less than 24 hours before that 

trial. Finally, Saeed and his attorney were barred from attending 

the second half of the trial. The half in which ‘‘key witness testimony’’ was taken, thereby denying his legal team the ability to 

question or even know who those witnesses were. Predictably, this 

resulted in Saeed’s conviction, an 8-year prison sentence on January 27, 2013. 

Judge Pir-Abassi, who presided over Pastor Saeed’s trial, has 

earned the nickname the hanging judge. Despite the fact that 

Judge Pir-Abassi has been individually sanctioned by the European 

Union and that the U.S. Commission on International Religious 

Freedom under the chair of Ms. Swett and also now vice chair, has 

repeatedly made a similar recommendation to the United States 

Department of State. To date, the U.S. has failed to place any sanctions on Judge Pir-Abassi. The EU has acted. The United States 

has not. 

You heard from Naghmeh about the horrific prison conditions 

that Saeed is enduring, that he is being denied basic medical care 

and that he has been transferred to a much more difficult prison 

than Evin Prison. See, this is Rajai Shahr Prison, built for 5,000 

violent criminals, real criminals, murderers, rapists, drug dealers, 

people convicted and sentenced to death or life in prison. Built for 

5,000 inmates, it is currently housing approximately 22,000. It is 

a prison out of control with violence. To define the situation as inhumane would be a gross understatement. In addition to the horrific abuse and torture Pastor Saeed has faced at the hands of his 

own brutal Iranian captors, Pastor Saeed has not always had the 

full backing of his own government. And I want to be clear here, 

I mean the executive branch. Members of Congress have been with 

us on both sides, Republican and Democrat, since the beginning. 

When the Iranian Government initially detained Pastor Saeed, 

the U.S. State Department excused its lack of assistance on the 

fact that the U.S. lacked any diplomatic ties with Iran. That 

doesn’t work any more. So now when the U.S. has historically communicated with, sits across from the table of the Iranian Government, the U.S. Government has still failed to secure the release of 

Pastor Saeed and the other Americans in prison. 

As Naghmeh pointed out, this Congress has spoken with 

strength and unity on behalf of Pastor Saeed and we are grateful 

that President Obama expressed his concern about the Americans 

imprisoned in Iran on his historic phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani back in September. But as you all know, as 

Members of Congress, as principals, if there is no follow up to your 

discussion, little gets done. Everyone has a lot to do. And you have 

staff, you have staff that you rely to make sure what you have 

33

agreed to on phone calls or said you will do is done. Yet, 2 days 

ago, Secretary of State Kerry sat at this table and to you Chairman 

Smith, he said that this matter is a priority for him. But numerous 

statements from his Department claim that Saeed was either not 

brought or only discussed on the margins. For us, you can understand the incompetence. Was he brought up? Was he on the margins? 

If you look at Secretary Kerry’s statements to you, Chairman 

Smith, it is very difficult to tell. He made a pretty broad statement 

of no. But you have had others including those who were even 

going before their hearings in the Senate for confirmation yesterday tell Senator Rubio that he was brought up on the margins of 

the P5+1. So who is telling the truth? We were told he was by the 

State Department. But then when Secretary Kerry testified and 

there are other statements we can point to as well, the Deputy National Security Advisory Tony Blinken said on CNN to Wolf Blitzer, 

no, it was not, it was not part of the agenda. But yet, the National 

Security Council spokesperson Ben Rhodes later that day on CNN 

said it was on the margins. On the margins is bad enough, not at 

all is even worse. We don’t know which one of those to believe. 

And that is why we believe, Mr. Chairman, that that offer from 

Secretary Kerry to hold that classified briefing for Members of Congress should be absolutely acted upon and we would welcome the 

opportunity to provide you with the kind of questions and information that we have received from the State Department so that you 

can get the answers and we can hear back from you at least to 

know whether you are satisfied with what we believe is our Government’s incompetence. 

Let me just close by expressing my gratitude to both subcommittees for taking an active role in Pastor Saeed’s case. And just to 

highlight again that while our Government sat across the table 

from the Iranian delegation, Saeed was transferred to a worse prison. Was it on the margins or was it not on the agenda? That is an 

answer we need from the United States executive branch and from 

the Obama administration. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Sekulow follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Sekulow, and we will indeed follow 

up with that classified briefing. I, and I know everyone else who 

is concerned about Pastor Abedini, will be raising this issue repeatedly going forward at every venue where we have an interface with 

the administration because there was a sense of conflicting information even as the Secretary of State spoke. So thank you for your 

testimony and for being an excellent lawyer on behalf of Mr. 

Abedini. 

Mr. Calingaert. 

STATEMENT OF DANIEL CALINGAERT, PH.D., EXECUTIVE VICE 

PRESIDENT, FREEDOM HOUSE 

Mr. CALINGAERT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Madam Chairman, 

honorable members. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you 

today. I want to thank you for your leadership in championing the 

case of Pastor Abedini and pressing for his release. Sadly, the 

kinds of abuses that he suffers are all too common in Iran. During 

the campaign for the Presidency of Iran, Hassan Rouhani repeatedly promised to release all political prisoners and to make a 

change in favor of free speech and media freedom. The record of his 

first 4 months in office shows otherwise. He has yet to live up to 

these promises. 

Fifteen prominent political prisoners were released in September, 

but approximately 800 dissidents including human rights defenders, journalists, and political activists remain unjustly detained in 

Iran. The leaders of the Green Movement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, 

Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard are still under house arrest. While some limited space has opened up for women’s rights 

activists, the overall situation for human rights in Iran is as grim 

under President Rouhani as it was before. 

In the past few weeks, Iran’s Interior Ministry and Revolutionary 

Guards have carried out a new wave of arrests to stifle free expression. At least 38 people were arrested, including editors and staff 

of a technology Web site, Narenji, and activists in the Province of 

Kerman who were accused of receiving foreign assistance to 

produce online content that undermines the Islamic regime. These 

arrests come on the heels of a December 3rd court ruling that exonerated government officials accused of murdering Sattar Beheshti, 

a blogger who was detained by the Iranian cyber police, and was 

later found dead in his jail cell with bruises on his body. 

Iran is second only to China in the number of executions it carries out. This year, 668 reported executions have already taken 

place. Virtually all capital cases lack internationally recognized 

standards of due process and death sentences are often imposed for 

relatively minor crimes such as drug possession. The Iranian regime, dominated by Shiite clerics and Revolutionary Guard commanders is highly repressive. It systematically tramples political 

and civil rights. In Freedom House’s annual report on freedom in 

the world, Iran receives a rating of six on a scale of one to seven, 

where seven is the lowest score. 

The election of Rouhani was welcomed by some in Iran and 

abroad because he was the least conservative of the candidates, but 

his election was anything but fair. Over 600 candidates had registered to run in that election, but only 6 names appeared on the 

40

ballot and who made that decision? The Guardian Council, 12 Islamic clerics and jurists, not the voters. 

The media environment in Iran is among the most restrictive in 

the world. Iran ranks 191st out of 197 countries in Freedom 

House’s annual ratings on media freedom. The government directly 

controls all television and radio broadcasting and print media, 

blogs, and news Web site are severely censored. Restrictions on online space are equally, if not more severe. In the latest edition of 

Freedom House’s rankings on Internet freedom which covered 60 

countries, Iran came in the very last place. 

With all that is at stake in the negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program, there is a temptation to put aside human rights 

issues because they might complicate the negotiations. But that 

would be a mistake. Speaking out for human rights in Iran as elsewhere both reflects U.S. values and serves U.S. interests and it can 

be done at the same time as we negotiate on nuclear matters. 

The Iranian people’s aspirations for greater freedom are abundantly clear. They were expressed in the votes for Rouhani and his 

promises for change and they were seen in a recent Zogby poll that 

showed issues of political reform trumped other concerns. The Iranian regime stifles free expression because the citizens are expressing a desire for political change. They want to modernize their 

country, to exchange opinions freely, and to become open to the 

rest of the world. An Iranian Government that is more attuned to 

the views of its own citizens will be less hostile toward the United 

States and more constructive in its foreign relations. 

When faced with international criticism of its human rights 

abuses, the Iranian Government invariably is defiant, but it does 

listen. International pressure has, for example, led to the release 

of former political prisoners such as Maziar Bahari, Roxana Saberi, 

and most recently in September Nasrin Sotoudeh. One thing is certain, the Iranian Government’s record on human rights does not 

improve when the United States stays silent. The United States 

can put human rights high on the agenda with its adversaries at 

the same time as it addresses other sensitive and complex issues. 

The Reagan administration kept human rights on the agenda while 

negotiating nuclear arms treaties with the Soviet Union. 

President Clinton spoke out about the struggle for individual 

freedom at Beijing University during a state visit in 1998 and still 

held constructive talks with Chinese Government leaders on a 

range of security and economic issues. 

Iranians who want to change their country for the better understand that the struggle for freedom is their struggle. They have to 

stand up for their rights and demand that their government listen 

to them. But Iranians notice what we in the United States say and 

don’t say. When we stay silent, we send the message that we don’t 

care about their struggle for freedom and that message is disheartening for Iranians today and it will hurt our credibility with them 

for a long time to come. The United States needs to put human 

rights on its agenda with the Government of Iran. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Calingaert follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Mr. Calingaert, thank you very much for your testimony and for your historical perspective as well. As you were 

speaking, it called to mind the point Dr. Lantos Swett made about 

Natan Sharansky and his wife who worked tirelessly for his release. Chairman Wolf and I were actually in Perm Camp 35, the 

infamous prison where Sharansky had been incarcerated, just a 

few months after he was released. Obviously, many other political 

prisoners were still there, but the lesson learned from the way we 

handled human rights with the Soviet Union was that you integrate them, you never stovepipe them. We risked superpower confrontation with a country that was wrestling with nuclear weapons 

aimed at the United States because we put human rights and the 

value of human life at such a high level. When Secretary Schultz 

would visit Moscow, and my first trip to the Soviet Union was in 

’82 on behalf of Soviet Jewish refusniks, he would always meet 

with all the dissidents and then meet with the Soviets as well. 

There was never this stovepiping, this separation, this doing something in another room. And I think you are a reminder of that, Mr. 

Calingaert. And you did it was well, Mr. Sekulow, you all did, 

frankly. Because I am very concerned, especially of the response to 

the question I asked of the Secretary just 2 days ago that and the 

different versions that we have gotten from other people within the 

administration. Was it discussed or not? And it would seem if it 

was discussed at all, it was on the margins, but it should have 

been center stage. 

Every conversation we had with the Iranians should have begun 

with Saeed Abedini and ended with Saeed Abedini. How can we 

trust the Iranians’ signature on a piece of paper if they so callously 

mistreat not only their own human rights defenders, but if they 

take pastors like Saeed Abedini, an American, and not only incarcerate him, but as you pointed out, Mr. Sekulow, at the very time 

when these negotiations are happening, transfer him from one terrible prison to an infamous prison where he is even at greater risk. 

That was a message sender that seemed to have been missed by 

the U.S. Department of State and by the administration. 

And I would agree with all of you who made it very clear, there 

is no partisanship here. I can tell you having been here 33 years, 

when we unite in human rights in Congress, no matter who is in 

the White House, it is all about standing up for the victims and 

others, their families, like Ms. Abedini and making sure we speak 

out very loudly and very clearly. We are not in those negotiations 

face-to-face with, in this case, the Iranians, so again I think your 

message here today that this has to be integrated, mainstreamed, 

and not stovepiped is very clear because I, too, like others on this 

panel, think about and pray about Pastor Abedini every single day. 

So thank you for reminding us just how important that this is. So 

the integration issue is very important. 

If I could ask very quickly, Dr. Lantos Swett, you have asked as 

a commission that under Section 105 of the Comprehensive Iran 

Sanctions and Disinvestment Act that certain Iranian officials be 

censured because of their mistreatment based on religious persecution. If I could also just ask, when you said, Mr. Sekulow, that Pastor Saeed has exhausted all legal remedies, who now makes the decision? It really does come down to a negotiation with the United 

45

States, doesn’t it? They have to know that the value is sufficiently 

high that the relationship with Iran hinges, the tipping point, is 

how well or how poorly going forward they treat Pastor Abedini. 

And finally, your statement, Ms. Abedini, was very bold, when 

you called on the President to reengage, when you called on the 

Secretary of State to reengage and when you said ‘‘please don’t let 

this case be discussed on the margins and please make his case a 

priority.’’ There will be more negotiations and I think the sooner 

that reengagement occurs, the better. If you would want to elaborate on that as well. 

Dr. Lantos Swett? 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. Well, we think that the application of sanctions directed at specific people implicated in human rights and religious freedom abuses is incredibly important. It is part of a long 

tradition, successful tradition of the human rights movement in 

general to name and shame and blame, to identify, to pin responsibility on those responsible. And so it really is critically important 

and the fact is there has been a lot of discussion about President 

Rouhani’s charm offensive, but when we look at what is actually 

going on in Iran under his leadership, it is actually more offensive 

than it is charming, particularly again as it relates to religious 

freedom violations. 

And so we feel very, very strongly that that step of our Government officially saying you are not welcome here, if you have assets 

here, they will be frozen, they will be put beyond your reach, those 

sorts of concrete steps. Send that message, that you are not a political leader, engaging in respectful and appropriate sort of leadership in your country. You are someone who is personally implicated 

in vile abuses of the human rights of your citizens. We know it. We 

are saying it and by doing so the rest of the world knows it as well. 

Ms. ABEDINI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In my statement when 

I discussed that Saeed cannot be left in the margins, I believe that 

if we do not speak out, if we do not put him at the center stage, 

then we are sending the world the wrong message about where we 

stand in terms of human rights issues. We are sending it to Iran, 

but especially in the Middle East, with the high increase of persecution of the Christians and religious minorities, I believe by putting Saeed as just not a person, it is where we stand, where we 

put our value in terms of human rights issues. And I think it is 

very dangerous. Americans are watching our Government to see 

what we will do and the world is watching to see where we stand 

in terms of important human rights issues such as religious freedom which has been an important value since this country was 

founded. So I believe that leaving it at the margins is very dangerous and is sending a very dangerous message to the world. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. SEKULOW. Mr. Chairman, I would assert again as in my 

opening statement, the ineptness of the State Department’s relationship with Ms. Abedini. She is represented not just by us but 

ultimately by the U.S. Government who is sitting at that table. 

And I will tell you that in conversations with them, they ask us 

to keep confidential and they ask us to—what updates they are 

doing around the world. For instance, I will point out something 

that was news to us. I don’t know if Secretary Kerry misspoke 

46

when he mentioned the Swedish, but they have never been mentioned to us on any phone calls and there are countries that have. 

That is not one of them. He may have misspoke, but that would 

be something to clear up. 

We have also been told on those phone calls, now this is by 

lower-level staff, mostly NEA, so the Near East Affairs Department 

of State, it was absolutely being brought up on the margins. So 

why would Secretary Kerry have been so broad in that statement 

that it was not? And then third and finally, the idea that bringing 

them up would make them hostages or pawns, I would beg to differ 

and state that Mr. Abedini as well as Mr. Hekmati and Mr. 

Levinson already are pawns and they already are hostages of Iran. 

They are American citizens being held by a foreign government. We 

are sitting at the table with them. Some have been hostages for 

nearly 7 years, 2 years, or 444 days. They are already at that point. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. I would just conclude before yielding to Mr. Deutch 

that 2 days ago on December 10th, along with Congressman, Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, I chaired a hearing on Coptic Christians 

and for me it was my fourth hearing in 2 years on Coptic Christians. And many of us fought very hard to get language into the 

foreign operations appropriations bill that conditioned United 

States aid, it is properly conditioned on the Egyptian-Israeli peace 

agreement at Camp David, but we said that on religious freedom, 

there ought to be conditionality there as well. 

We got into the foreign operations bill. Mrs. Clinton waived it as 

the Coptic Christians were being slaughtered, churches decimated, 

monasteries, many of them hundreds of years old. We looked 

askance and embraced Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. It was 

appalling. And one of the issues that I raised repeatedly again, I 

think what Ms. Abedini is doing, one of the side issues that will 

help all others, is pointing out a huge deficiency. Many Coptic 

Christian girls have been abducted and forced into Islamic marriages. We had a woman who actually did the reporting on it, she 

is a noted human rights investigator, bring this information forward. And the administration did nothing on it. And that is very 

disturbing. So there is a larger backdrop issue of disregard for religious freedom issues that has to change and it has to start with 

Pastor Abedini. 

Mr. Deutch? 

Mr. DEUTCH. I thank the chairman. I have a couple of questions 

for Dr. Lantos Swett and Dr. Calingaert. Let me start by just telling Ms. Abedini that there is a real commitment by Congress to 

bring your husband home and there is a real commitment by the 

entire Government, including the administration to bring your husband home. I didn’t come to this hearing this morning to apologize 

or come to the defense of the administration, but I would respectfully suggest that as we address these human rights issues, the 

best way for us to address them, starting with your husband and 

his release is to work in a unified fashion to do it. 

I don’t believe, Mr. Sekulow, that it is helpful for us in this hearing for the hearing to turn on allegations of incompetence and ineptitude by the administration. I just wanted to make that point. I 

look forward to the classified briefing that we are going to have 

47

with Secretary Kerry and others. I can only speak to the briefings 

with respect to my constituent and I know discussions that we 

have had on a broader level about human rights, I would just respectfully suggest that there is a real commitment to bringing 

home—I am sympathetic. I understand your frustration. I don’t 

blame you 1 minute for the immense difficulty and the sadness 

that you feel every day that your husband is not with you and your 

family. That commitment as we have all expressed here is very 

real. 

Let me just ask Dr. Lantos Swett and Dr. Calingaert a question 

about not just what happens here in the United States and in this 

Congress and the administration, but more broadly internationally. 

First, the Lautenberg amendment here saved the lives of many religious minorities in Iran. But multi-laterally, since—well, every 

year since 2002, we have worked with the Canadians on the U.N. 

resolution condemning Iran’s human rights record. In 2011, we successfully led an effort to create a Special Rapporteur on human 

rights in Iran. But regardless of what happens and this is the frustration a lot of us feel, regardless of what happens on the nuclear 

profile, it appears that human rights, since the human rights situation doesn’t change, and my question is, even as we are working 

tirelessly focused on individual cases, starting with Pastor Abedini, 

how do we expand this? What is the next big step that we can take 

either domestically or through the United Nations to raise awareness of human rights? 

Dr. Calingaert, you talked about making human rights matter in 

Iran for the United States. What is the next big step we can take 

for the United States to lead, for this Congress to lead, to make 

human rights really matter internationally? 

Dr. Lantos Swett, please. 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. Well, it is a critical question, one that I 

think those involved in the human rights movement grapple with 

on an on-going basis. But I do think a central part of the answer 

to that question is that human rights, religious freedom have to be 

elevated in the public discourse. At the end of the day, we have 

limited ability to force other governments to do things that we 

want them to do, but we do have the power still as the world’s indispensable nation to raise the profile of their wrongdoing, to make 

it extraordinarily uncomfortable and unpleasant and unwelcoming 

for them in the community of civilized nations. And we have to do 

that. 

I do think the whole situation with the efforts to reach agreement on Iran’s nuclear program is an extraordinary window of opportunity and shame on us if we miss it. I think a lot of people 

have observed that with sanctions crippling, painful biting sanctions that ultimately brought Iran to the table. Undoubtedly, it was 

the unspoken threat of military action whether on the part of 

Israel or other players that have also brought them to the table. 

So it is vulnerability to some degree on Iran’s part that has broken 

ground in that arena. That vulnerability needs to be exploited, not 

merely to achieve progress on the nuclear front, but to achieve 

progress on the human rights front. That vulnerability speaks to 

the internal situation in Iran specifically. 

48

We know that the Iranian people are chafing under the regime 

that they are living under. And so I very, very strongly believe that 

we should not let this moment of opportunity slip by. It is as if you 

had somebody in your neighborhood, as it were, who was a notorious drug dealer, as well as a notorious abuser of their children 

and their spouse. Well, the drug dealing sort of involves spreading 

a poison and danger out into the broader community. That would 

sort of be the nuclear side of what worries us about Iran. The 

abuse within their home would relate to the human rights issues 

that are of concern to us. 

I don’t think any of us would be content to say well, for the moment they stopped dealing drugs, so we are good. We are done, you 

know? Mission accomplished. We would insist that we pursue, in 

whatever avenues were appropriate, stopping that abuse within the 

house and I think that that needs to be the approach that we take 

as a government. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Dr. Calingaert, do you have thoughts on how to elevate the issue? 

Mr. CALINGAERT. Yes, Mr. Deutch. I very much agree that it is 

important to address these issues multi-laterally. And I like your 

starting point, the U.N. Special Rapporteur, his efforts and the resolutions that Canada and the U.S. have pushed are very significant 

because first of all they put all countries on record where they 

stand in regard to Iran’s human rights abuses and in that process 

they show that the concern about Iran’s human rights record extends far beyond the United States and Western Europe, that there 

are countries around the world that think that Iran’s record is 

shameful. 

I think there are many steps that can be taken by the U.S. in 

cooperation with other democratic governments. I don’t think there 

is any sort of big breakthrough to be had, but I think it is important to push this issue in all these ways on a consistent basis. So 

even starting with the U.N. Special Rapporteur, he has been trying 

simply to get access to the country, to be able to have an official 

visit. I think it is important to keep pushing for that. 

His mandate will come up and it is important to renew that 

mandate so that he can continue his important work. The collaboration with the European Union is important from the examples of 

sanctions that Dr. Lantos Swett mentioned and also bringing attention to individual cases. 

One of the political prisoners that was released in September, 

Nasrin Sotoudeh, was a recipient of the European Parliament’s 

Sakharov Prize. I don’t think that is a coincidence. The fact that 

there was major attention given to her case put pressure on the 

Iranian Government to release her. And that is why I think it is 

important to push on individual cases. It seems like a tough slog, 

obviously, even the releases are pretty few when you consider there 

are still 800 dissidents in detention. And many of them aren’t 

known. But for even the few that are released, it sends an important signal to those who are still struggling for human rights on 

the ground, that there is hope and especially that the outside world 

cares about their efforts. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Thank you. 

49

Mr. SEKULOW. If I could, Mr. Chairman, respond to one of Congressman Deutch’s statements. The incompetence has not been at 

the level of Republicans and Democrats in Congress. It has been 

at a bureaucratic level and it is clear because on television, members of the administration of the White House, on the National Security Council say one thing happens in the negotiation. And the 

Deputy National Security Advisor said something else happens. 

Secretary Kerry then says something else. And I would add for the 

Congressman with all due respect, I know he represents his constituent, Robert Levinson. Seven years missing? I don’t want to be 

here 6 years from now. I would say that is incompetent, especially 

when we have an opportunity. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Sekulow, excuse me. First of all, again, we are 

here today to focus on human rights in a country that has absolutely no respect for them. And we are focusing on human rights 

in a country that has immense respect for them. And to bring discredit on the men and women who have spent the last 7 years trying to bring Bob Levinson home, to advance some agenda, unknown agenda that I can’t fathom, when we are all trying to work 

together to focus on human rights and to bring Pastor Abedini 

home, it is not right. 

Mr. SEKULOW. Congressman, things have significantly changed 

and as you are walking out, in the last month we are now in negotiations with Iran. That didn’t happen 6 years ago, so whatever efforts you are talking about before, it was different. But in the last 

6 weeks, we have a new relationship with Iran. We can’t think 

about Iran as, and we still hear this from the State Department: 

‘‘We have no diplomatic ties.’’ Well, depending on how you define 

that when you are sitting down at the table regularly, I think the 

whole situation is fundamentally changed. So to accept what was 

previously done as satisfactory is no longer satisfactory, that is 

what I am saying. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Sekulow, since my time has expired and you 

have claimed some of the time that I no longer had, I would simply 

tell you that the commitment that exists to bring Pastor Abedini 

home and Mr. Hekmati home and to bring home my constituent is 

real. And have things changed? Absolutely they have. And does 

every one of us here believe that this is an issue that should be 

raised at every single meeting? Yes. I have said it. We have all said 

it and we all need to ensure that it happens. 

Mr. SEKULOW. But we all know that it hasn’t happened. 

Mr. SMITH. Will the gentleman yield? The reason why I wanted 

to chair and put together this hearing, along with my distinguished 

colleague from Florida, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, was precisely because of 

our concern that it was not being raised, it had not been integrated 

in a place where it could have made all the difference in the world. 

And just by way of historical fact, it was Ms. Abedini at Frank 

Wolf’s hearing who was told ‘‘There is nothing we can do’’ by the 

State Department. 

I have worked human rights issues for 33 years. There is absolutely everything they can do and I would say parenthetically that 

on Jacob Ostreicher, and I know you have helped us on that as has 

Congressman Ros-Lehtinen. Jacob Ostreicher is an American being 

held now under house arrest, but 18 months in Palmasola Prison 

50

in Bolivia. Never charged with anything. His rice farm was fleeced 

from him, taken away. The prosecutors, the rogue prosecutors, 

many of them are now in prison themselves, but he is still under 

house arrest. I have tried repeatedly and asked Secretary Kerry 

himself to intervene. It has not happened yet. We can’t get above 

the level of Assistant Secretary to raise the issue and that man, 

Jacob Ostreicher, a Jewish man and there is anti-Semitism involved here. I had three hearings to bring this to the attention of 

the administration and it dropped the ball like a ton of bricks on 

human rights with an American just like with this American pastor. For the first year they did nothing. As a matter of fact, they 

were admonished by the administration to gag themselves and say 

nothing. Absolutely the wrong way to go about it. He at least got 

out of prison and he is under house arrest, so he is not facing the 

daily threats that he faced in Palmasola. 

So I see parallels, that the State Department goes the path of 

least resistance. Human rights is sidetracked. When we did the 

International Religious Freedom Act back in 1998, and I don’t care 

who is in the White House, this has been a problem. Religious freedom is always given the back seat. And we put into the legislation, 

not only the establishment of Dr. Lantos Swett’s commission to 

hold the administration to account with independent verification of 

what is going on, great reports that they do, particularly on recommendations for CPC countries, but the training of Foreign Service officers who are often clueless, and they are good people, but 

clueless about the nuances that often occur in countries relative to 

religious freedom the lack of it, and the persecution of believers. 

So there has been a backdrop of dropping the ball. I asked Secretary of State John Kerry if it was a mainstream issue and he 

said it was not part of the negotiation. That is a serious miss. And 

so I agree. We are working together on this. But we are hoping the 

administration will take the cue from the wife, Ms. Abedini, and 

from those who are concerned, including both sides of the aisle to 

step up, to do more, and especially when you are sitting right 

across from Iranian interlocutors who can make the difference. 

They could say free Abedini today and he is on a plane back to his 

wife and children. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Chairman, I agree wholeheartedly with you 

that on every occasion we should do as much as we can to bring 

home Pastor Abedini and to bring home Mr. Hekmati and Jacob 

and my constituent and that we should do everything we can to 

make this issue paramount. I agree with you. I simply point out 

that our goal in addition to bringing home those who have been 

persecuted and held hostage, that our goal, as well, more broadly, 

is to elevate human rights. In this debate, here, to elevate human 

rights in this Congress, to make sure that this, and every administration, of either party, puts human rights squarely, not only on 

the table, but right up front. That is what we are all striving for. 

I am simply making the point that as we strive to elevate human 

rights I just hate to see our efforts to do that amount to a round 

attack on the administration. And I don’t disagree. I think the administration, well, let me just finish. I think the administration 

needs to be, as I said, the administration needs to be pushed to 

51

make sure that human rights matters every single day. That is our 

job. And we do it well. And we need to continue to do it. 

And Mr. Chairman, you have been a leader on these issues, as 

long as you have been in this House. And I am grateful for it. But 

I respectfully suggest that it becomes more difficult for us to make 

human rights the fundamental focus that it needs to be internationally if it appears that somehow this has turned into some 

sort of round of political squabble. And this is the only point I am 

trying to make. 

Mr. SMITH. Just one very brief point and then I think Ms. 

Abedini wants to speak and then we will go to the chair. 

When there is a deficiency, I believe we have a duty to speak out. 

Mrs. Abedini said at Frank Wolf’s hearing that she was told that 

there was nothing they can do. Chairman Wolf got on the phone, 

talked to Secretary Kerry. I think he talked to him personally and 

a statement went out immediately. We applauded the Secretary of 

State, all of us, and thanked him profusely for doing that. 

Now several months later, sitting across from the Iranians again, 

and the issue is not raised and the wife of Pastor Abedini, I think 

wisely, says ‘‘What is going on here?’’ It needs to be integrated. It 

needs to be part of that discussion and then he will be released. 

Otherwise, they take their cue by our lack of prioritization. The 

Iranian issue is over here on nuclear matters, but the issue of 

human rights is somewhere and we are not sure where. So that 

was the reason for the hearing. 

Chairman Ros-Lehtinen. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Ms. 

Abedini, our prayers to you and to your children and may our Lord 

continue to give you, your husband, and your children the strength 

you need to carry on with this important, important case. It is not 

a case. It is your husband. It is the children’s father. But hearings 

like this one are important because that is the way we can push 

the administration, whatever administration is in power, to do all 

that it can, to do more, to ensure that your husband’s release is immediate. And you may feel that certain individuals in power have 

abandoned your husband and we can have disagreements about 

that, but the members here are united in a bipartisan manner to 

make sure that we will not remain silent and we will continue to 

push. We are going to continue to raise your husband’s case so that 

we can pressure all who can have a say in this to make Pastor 

Saeed’s release a higher priority. 

Dr. Lantos Swett, USCIRF has made recommendations to the 

U.S. Government regarding religious freedom in Iran, several of 

which you outlined at a hearing on this same issue in March. What 

is your assessment of the administration’s response to these recommendations? Do you believe that the U.S. has focused so much 

attention on the nuclear negotiations that it has ignored the abysmal human rights record of Iran out of fear of angering the regime? 

Also, in October 2010, the Ayatollah Khamenei publicly called 

non-Muslims, religious minorities, enemies of Islam and accused 

them of weakening the faith of Iran’s Muslim youth. Another leading Ayatollah referred to non-Muslims as sinful animals. Statements like these, they incite violence against religious minorities. 

Would you agree with that? Have you observed increased violence 

52

against these groups following these kinds of provocative statements by so-called leaders? And despite the recommendations of 

USCIRF and the European Union’s decision to individually sanction the judge who gave Pastor Saeed this outrageous 8-year sentence, the U.S. has yet to sanction this judge and it is not a partisan attack, it is a reality. What message does this lack of action 

send to religious minorities and human rights advocates in Iran? 

The Iranian regime’s human rights record doesn’t improve when 

the U.S. remains silent. It is an issue that doesn’t get much attention because of the nuclear topic, but whatever the administration 

is in power, do you believe that the administration has been silent 

about Pastor Saeed’s case? Do you believe it is spoken enough 

about this case and the case of others? I have asked a lot of questions and you can just pick whichever one you would like to answer. Otherwise, we would be here forever. So we will start with 

Dr. Lantos Swett. 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. Well, I think it would be an overstatement 

to say that they have ignored the human rights situation in Iran. 

And one of the things that I referenced in my testimony was a relatively recent statement by the National Security Advisor, Dr. 

Susan Rice. That is a very high-level person within the administration and she said, ‘‘Our sanctions on Iran’s human rights abusers 

will continue and so will our support for the fundamental rights of 

all Iranians.’’ So ignore, I think, would be too strong of a term. But 

I would also be remiss if I were not to say that we certainly at 

USCIRF feel that more needs to be done and more can be done. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. I am going to cut you off just so 

that we can hear from the others. 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. Absolutely. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Ms. Abedini or Mr. Sekulow, whoever would 

like. 

Mr. SEKULOW. Thank you, Madam Chairman. And I would say, 

because I do want to clear this up, and Congressman Deutch is no 

longer with us, but my opening statement was all about this bipartisan support we have had in Congress which has been unprecedented. And it is not an attack, or a Republican or Democrat issue. 

It is an administration that I think Congress has also got to deal 

with. Are you being told what is accurate? I hope that briefing, 

that classified briefing clears what has been so difficult for the administration to communicate to us which is what is actually being 

done? And what is not. And when is it being done and I would add 

to that we have been told a number of times well Iran has been 

told this Iranian official, that Iranian official, from the President 

on down. What answer have we gotten? We have never been told 

an answer by Iran. 

This idea that we may be asking sometimes on the margins, in 

a phone call. That is wonderful. What is the response? 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. He must not become an asterisk or a footnote. 

Mr. SEKULOW. Exactly right. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. Yes, Ms. Abedini. 

53

Ms. ABEDINI. I wanted to make sure Mr. Deutch was here to discuss that, but I don’t have an agenda. And there is nothing more 

than I would like to see my country united on an important issue 

such as human rights. I have been fighting tirelessly for my husband’s release for over a year. It has been a lonely road for me and 

the kids as well. I haven’t seen my kids most of this 444 days as 

well and they haven’t had a mom in the last year. But for me, as 

an American citizen, it was unbelievable. I felt abandoned when we 

had the chance to not necessarily discuss it at the nuclear, but as 

a precondition, as a good-faith effort which we have done for the 

Iranian Government with the easing of the sanctions and the monetary and prisoners and so on. 

I would have expected my Government as we have done goodfaith efforts for Iran to have—I like that example of a drug dealer 

and he is abusing his wife and kids. But what if he is abusing your 

child? You don’t demand him to release your child before negotiating about the drug dealing? And I expected my Government before shaking hands with the world’s number one violator of human 

rights issues and support of terrorism, that put aside, they have an 

American citizen——

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Don’t get me started about shaking hands. 

Ms. ABEDINI. Before shaking hands, before negotiating, we have 

done good faith effort. I expected our Government to have Iran 

show a good-faith effort, that they want to work with us. This 

would have been a perfect opportunity for Iran to release the three 

Americans. And again, I don’t have an agenda. I am not a political 

person. I am a mom. I am a wife. And as an American citizen and 

millions of American citizens who are behind me in this, we do not 

understand what happened. We do not understand. And we are 

very much upset by it and I very much feel abandoned and I feel 

my husband has been abandoned. I do hope he survives that prison 

and we can bring him home quickly. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. And the last word to the good 

doctor. 

Mr. CALINGAERT. Every authoritarian government will push back 

when we bring up human rights. They will fuss. They will make 

excuses. They will say it complicates everything else we want to do. 

That is their instinctive reaction. We should know better. The one 

thing that is clear is that if we don’t bring something up, they get 

the message. They get the message that we don’t care. And I would 

also again point back to specific cases like Maziar Bahari. In 2009, 

by his own account he felt sort of lost in prison and once then Secretary Clinton raised his case publicly, his treatment in prison immediately improved and that led to his release. So it is critical that 

we raise these cases. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much to all of you. Thank 

you, Mr. Smith. I am sorry, I am going to have to depart. Thank 

you. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Meadows. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Thank you so much for being here for your testimony. I want to ask just a few clarifying questions. 

Ms. Abedini, if your husband were to be released today, he does 

not have an intention to go back to Iran and work against the government, is that correct? 

54

Ms. ABEDINI. He does not. 

Mr. MEADOWS. I knew the answer to that because you had 

shared that, but I think it is important to the American people that 

they realize that this was a pastor working on behalf of an orphanage, of those who were really ministering the Iranian people and 

that he was convicted and held for a trespass that happened many 

years prior to that. It was not like he was there violating a law at 

that particular time. To put it in very mild terms, it is like me 

speeding 12 years ago and then somebody coming in and changing 

the speeding law and saying that you actually were going above the 

speed limit and now we are going to convict you and throw you in 

jail. And so that is the injustice of it. 

The other part I guess that I would ask if I know that you have 

been working with a number of officials in the State Department, 

in Congress, and throughout. You have expressed appreciation to 

me personally for many of them working and so I don’t want it to 

get lost today. You do have an appreciation for those that are continuing to work on your behalf, whether it is behind the scenes or 

out front, is that correct? 

Ms. ABEDINI. Yes, very much so. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Dr. Lantos Swett, I want to come back to you. We 

have had a number of hearings where you have been here and you 

have raised this issue and there has been a number of times I have 

said, ‘‘Who are the Bonhoeffers, who are the Wilberforces of today?’’ 

and I think that you continue to champion those causes and I just 

want to say thank you. By raising the issue that we have talked 

about and raising the issue here today, what more can we do in 

a bipartisan congressional way to raise the issue, not only of Pastor 

Saeed Abedini, but of the other families, the pictures of whom you 

showed us, how can we come alongside the executive branch, the 

State Department, and encourage them to keep it at the forefront 

so it is not a picture that happens on one hearing, on 1 day, and 

doesn’t get raised again. How can we best help you in that in a bipartisan manner? 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. Well, I will bring up again the Defending 

Freedoms Project which is a specific, concrete initiative of Amnesty 

International, USCIRF, and the Lantos Human Rights Commission 

which I think would be a wonderful means of engaging more Members of Congress in sort of embracing this work themselves directly. 

But I would like to say something about the role of the Congress, 

in general, and I am very sorry that my good friend Congressman 

Deutch isn’t still here because I think Congress has an extraordinary role, has had an extraordinary role historically in being the 

conscience of our nation when it comes to human rights. It is simply a fact. I actually wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on this subject, 

so it is something very near and dear to my heart. But if you look 

at the history of human rights being legislatively enshrined as a 

principal goal of U.S. foreign policy, it was the work of Congress 

that brought that about in opposition to many administrations, one 

after the other, because every administration, every State Department, this isn’t a criticism, this is the reality, they are balancing 

many, many different items on a big plate and sometimes there is 

a tendency to put human rights in that small box in the corner of 

the room where it can occasionally get a tip of the hat, but it is 

55

not centrally enshrined. And Congress really has historically 

played that role, going back to the 1970s and saying, ‘‘No, this isn’t 

optional. This is essential.’’ This is going to be part of our official 

policy that the promotion of human rights should be a central and 

principal goal of American foreign policy. And it is so important because that above all plays to our strengths. It is when we advocate 

for our deepest values that we are playing to our strengths and 

playing from our strengths. 

And so I would say that Congress has an indispensable role. Administrations will always resist and will always push back because 

there will always be other things on the agenda, whether it is our 

economic interest or nuclear concerns. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Should we tie that to human rights to have an 

economic element to it? I mean because so many times we negotiate on economics and we negotiate on human rights and they 

don’t come together. Should we tie those together? 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. Well, I am a big believer in the school of 

linkage and not decoupling of human rights from our other essential foreign policy goals. They are all important, but I think that 

when we link human rights to our other foreign policy goals we 

strengthen our position. And I would say just in general and I don’t 

have a specific proposal to put in front of you although we obviously talked about the Lautenberg amendment and the need to reauthorize that on a multi-year basis, but that is an example of 

Congress acting legislatively to, if you will, force any administration’s hand. So Congress is the legislative body in our Government. 

You are the ones that propose and adopt laws. So I would say a 

robust human rights legislative agenda so that it is beyond resolutions and statements and hearings, but as with the Sergei 

Magnitsky bill which again, it was passed over opposition from the 

State Department, opposition from the administration, not because 

they don’t share the goals, but they never want their hands tied. 

Well, Congress isn’t trying to tie any particular administration’s 

hands, but sometimes they are trying to force our Government’s 

hand in a positive way, to do what we should do, to pursue the 

goals that the administration shares, but there are always countervailing arguments. So I would say a robust legislative agenda. And 

most recently, the Sergei Magnitsky Act is a really good example 

of Congress standing firm, against very bipartisan. Democrats and 

Republicans were side by side in pushing that forward in the face 

of opposition. It is now the law and that is, I think, a good example 

of when Congress is at its best. 

You have a lot of power when it comes to leading the human 

rights agenda. It is one area of foreign policy where Congress usually leads and the administration follows. So in the spirit of a tripartite government and co-equal branches of government, I would 

say do not fail to lead in the human rights sector because you can 

pass laws and you can help our Government do what it should already be doing. 

Mr. MEADOWS. I know and I will finish up with this, Mr. Chairman, I know that Ambassador Power tweeted out about Saeed 

Abedini and that seemed to have an impact. I know at least some 

of my constituents who picked up on it as a very high profile, so 

would you say the higher the profile that we continue, whether it 

56

is in tweets or Facebook, or the higher we continue to do that in 

terms of whether it be in the administration or chairmen of committees, does that make a real impact, not just with Iran, but with 

China, with a number of others where there are human rights violations that occur on a daily basis? 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. I absolutely believe that it does and I believe 

my colleague, Dr. Calingaert said earlier, but we have heard so 

much personal eyewitness testimony to this effect. Not only does it 

have an impact at the policy level, but it does have an impact at 

the level of the lives of the people who are being persecuted, who 

are imprisoned, who are suffering. They see it almost immediately 

that when somebody prominent brings up their name, when an article appears, when there is a press report, their circumstances improve for the better. There is no longer the sense of impunity. Impunity is the worst message that abusers can get. We can get away 

with this because yeah, nobody is really paying that much attention. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Well, for those that are listening, let the name of 

Pastor Saeed Abedini echo through these halls of Congress today 

and each day until he is released and let that message be there. 

I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Meadows. Mr. Weber. 

Mr. WEBER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Ms. Abedini, I am sorry that you have to be here. I appreciate 

your tenacity and your bravery and your commitment to your husband and I just wish that I could have had a chance to meet you 

under other circumstances. 

The Secretary of State came Tuesday and testified and sat right 

there at that table. I didn’t get a chance to ask questions. We ran 

out of time, but he made the comment that we didn’t want to tie 

the hostages, if you will, to the nuclear negotiations. We didn’t 

want to prejudice them. I was outraged. We should be the ones 

prejudiced? They should be afraid of what we might do to them and 

not the other way around, to not tie these human rights violations 

to that regime over there. 

And Dr. Lantos Swett, I want to pick up something you said. The 

administration doesn’t want its hands tied and Congress doesn’t 

seek to tie the administration’s hands. There’s one administration 

we would like to tie up, probably more than just the hands of and 

that is the regime in Iran. They should be afraid of how we will 

react, not the other way around. So for this administration to take 

the posture that somehow we can’t bring human rights violations 

to the forefront in these negotiations, I am told the Iranian people 

are crying out for relief. They want out from underneath this regime. 

The sanctions are working. Why would we give them up now? We 

have people that they have held, our own Americans that they 

have held. We should make this in the forefront. We should hold 

their feet to the fire and make this the absolute hallmark of our 

negotiations. If they want to show us they want out from underneath the sanctions, if they want to be a better world neighbor, 

then they better start by acting like it. So I would encourage you, 

and I am sure you have, to put the pressure on the State Department and this administration to say that we are no longer going 

57

to be concerned with some political correctness that somehow we 

are going to prejudice the Iranian regime. Are they kidding me? We 

need to take them to task in a major way. I am sorry, I had to get 

that off of my chest. Now I have a question. 

Mr. Sekulow, am I pronouncing that correctly? 

Mr. SEKULOW. That is correct, Congressman. 

Mr. WEBER. Your dad is Jay Sekulow. I have followed you all for 

a number of years and I appreciate your all’s work. Are you getting 

the sense that we are being able to elevate the discussion, as my 

colleague, Mr. Meadows said, and to bring up Pastor Saeed’s name 

in circles and to make it clear and evident that we will not let this 

die. Are the Iranian people getting that message? Are we getting 

any kind of help from inside? Are you aware of that? Or maybe 

that is a question for all of you. What say you? 

Mr. SEKULOW. Sure. I would say because I know Congressman 

Deutch did not like the word ‘‘incompetent’’ used. But as Congressman Meadows and as you just brought up as well, Congressman 

Weber, it is the idea that people’s good work inside our Government, inside our Government, even inside possibly the Iranian Government is at some point being undermined by higher officials. So 

it would be someone like an Under Secretary or a Secretary of 

State or a Foreign Minister who says, eh, we are not going to—I 

have got the info, I have got the briefing, but we are not going to 

talk about this at these meetings. And so when Secretary Kerry 

was so clear and left nothing—he said he has more to tell you 

about what their efforts are, non-nuclear related. We believe if the 

sanctions fall, Saeed is lost. 

Mr. WEBER. We lose our leverage. 

Mr. SEKULOW. So I want to make clear that as representing the 

Abedini family that we support a new sanctions regime if Iran 

were to violate any of the agreements. We support those efforts by 

the House and I believe we missed one major opportunity, the precondition. But they are already hostages. They are already pawns 

and so though the administration did miss that opportunity as a 

precondition to economic relief for Iran. 

Mr. WEBER. They don’t want their people to suffer while they 

have our people held in suffering. 

Mr. SEKULOW. They have three Americans held hostage. Our 

U.S. Government believes that Iran knows where Robert Levinson 

is. Thank you, Congressman. 

Mr. WEBER. Thank you. Dr. Lantos Swett, are we getting help 

from inside the Iranian nation? Are they rallying? Are they paying 

attention or are they taking heart from what is happening over 

here? 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. I don’t know that I have the answer to that 

question. I think that the reports would certainly indicate that the 

Iranian people, as you said, are desperate for relief from the sanctions regime, but something else that has been infrequently reported on is that they are desperate for relief from being perceived 

as a pariah nation. Obviously, 75 million people, a lot of those people, the majority of those people are very good people, just like you 

and me. They want to be part of a legitimate country and they are 

chafing not just under the economic bite of these sanctions, but 

58

under the terrible and well-deserved reputation that their nation 

has earned through its horrible abuses. 

I would make one point about the importance of aggressively 

raising the release, in particular, of these three Americans and we 

are all very focused on Pastor Abedini today. And that is that it 

is easy. That is something that Iran can do with utter and total 

ease. That is simply a matter of saying done. It is like the old easy 

button. I can’t remember which store it was that used to feature 

that. 

Mr. WEBER. It is Staples, but don’t remember. 

Ms. LANTOS SWETT. If they are unwilling to do something so 

easy, so easy, then I think we have to be concerned about their 

willingness to do something very hard which is unwind a very 

elaborate and deceptive and deeply embedded nuclear program. 

Mr. WEBER. You said it well. Our values, our country’s values of 

individual freedom and religious freedom and after all, that is why 

you all are involved, we are all involved here, should be the absolute, as I said, hallmark of any of our negotiations. And to think 

that anything else can be different is naive. And I don’t mean to 

get you off, but I want to go to the good doctor down here. Do we 

have any information from inside Iran—I am coming back to you, 

Ms. Abedini, in just a second—that we are getting support, our actions over here. Are we making a difference? 

Mr. CALINGAERT. Mr. Weber, unfortunately, I don’t have specific 

information, but I would just reiterate one of the points Dr. Lantos 

Swett made which is that the Iranian people have made clear when 

they have the opportunity, for instance, in this recent Zogby poll, 

that they want to change their country. When they are asked what 

is most important for them, they say advancing democracy, protecting civil rights, protecting and advancing the rights of women, 

political reform, and obviously, in that kind of context it would improve the situation for Pastor Abedini and for all the Iranians, the 

800 dissidents that are still in detention and all the Iranians who 

simply want to speak their mind. 

Mr. WEBER. Okay, thank you. And Ms. Abedini, you may or may 

not choose to answer this. You may check with your counselor here, 

but do you still have family in Iran? 

Ms. ABEDINI. Yes. I have actually been on Iranian media quite 

a number of times. A lot of the news media, Voice of America, BBC, 

and so on, and the feedback that I get, you know, the Iranian people were very much devastated when they were fighting for their 

human rights in 2009 and they didn’t get some kind of support. 

The Iranian people are like the abused family, really are hoping 

that America and the world would stand up and would speak out 

against all these human rights violations. The Iranian people are 

very much in support of that. I can add that. 

Mr. WEBER. I am glad to hear that and I want to associate myself with my colleagues’ remarks. We are going to talk about the 

Pastor Saeed and you and your efforts, Ms. Abedini, and your children, and we are going to continue to bring this to the forefront. 

And much to our colleague on the other side of the aisle, when 

there is a failure of the administration, I will not be shy about 

pointing that out. And right now, they have a colossal failure in my 

59

opinion in trying to relieve some of these sanctions without making 

this in the forefront. I have said my piece and I will yield back. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Weber. Mr. DeSantis. 

Mr. DESANTIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for having this hearing and bringing more attention to this. We must bring back Pastor 

Saeed Abedini. I think that many people have spoken eloquently 

about human rights, religious freedom, and all of that is absolutely 

true, but even if none of those issues were at stake, he is an American citizen. This is an attack not just against him and his family, 

but an attack against all of us, this from a regime since its very 

inception has exhibited abuse after abuse, attack after attack 

against the U.S. and our citizens. They detained over 400 Embassy 

personnel after the initial Islamic revolution. They were complicit 

in the Beirut bombing of 1983 which killed over 200 U.S. Marines. 

And of course, they were coordinating and perpetrating attacks 

against our service members in Iraq, not to mention, of course, the 

citizens of the United States, not just Pastor Saeed Abedini, but 

Bob Levinson, Amir Hekmati. This is something that is going to 

the heart of all of us. And so I want this to be an issue that is dealt 

with at the highest levels. And I was very discouraged when Secretary Kerry said that they had not raised the issue in the context 

of these nuclear negotiations, which obviously many people on both 

sides of the aisle had some serious concerns about. 

But let me ask you, Ms. Abedini, you had mentioned that when 

you initially talked to the State Department they said there was 

nothing they could do. Who was it at the State Department that 

basically said there was nothing they could do? 

Ms. ABEDINI. I don’t think I can mention names, but I think it 

was at the lower——

Mr. SEKULOW. It is a desk officer who was the first to state that 

they could not offer any assistance. Again, this is the staff level. 

They are getting direction from others. 

Mr. DESANTIS. And Secretary Kerry, to his credit, when he found 

out he immediately put out a statement, but the idea that the bureaucracy would be that dismissive when you have a U.S. citizen 

in jeopardy like that that has been essentially kidnapped by a totalitarian regime, there are some major, major issues going on 

there. So I was very discouraged to read your testimony and to be 

reminded of the fact that you had actually gone and I just think 

our bureaucracy has got to be very responsive to that. That is a 

very important issue. 

Mr. Sekulow, I guess part of this is in 2009, there was this Green 

Movement that was very, very promising. So some of the countries 

like Egypt, you don’t know what is going to end up happening. 

There is pluses and minuses to people like Hosni Mubarak, but 

when you are in Iran, it can’t get any worse. So any speaking out 

against the regime is something that I think the U.S. should support. The administration purposely did not back that, did not provide any even rhetorical support and I think the reason is that the 

President was looking to have better relations with the regime and 

he thought that that would jeopardize that. So I am wondering is 

there a concern that this zest for a deal on paper may cause the 

60

administration to not put forth as much effort on some of these 

human rights cases that could, quite frankly, complicate the ‘‘deal’’? 

Mr. SEKULOW. Congressman DeSantis, I would say the administration did just that. They missed the preconditions to negotiations 

where they could have handled this with Iran before sitting down 

on the nuclear issue and economic relief and say hey, you know, 

you have got three of ours. I mean we were talking about broader 

human rights in Iran. That is a long-term strategy. Why we are 

here today is because of one American of three who are being held. 

As you said, that is egregious enough. We didn’t have to have that 

whole agreement on a new human rights scheme inside Iran for 

Iranian citizens to get to the next step. We needed to get three 

Americans home. And the administration missed that opportunity. 

Then Secretary Kerry came before the Foreign Affairs Committee 

of which this subcommittee is a part of and said it will not be part 

of the nuclear negotiations. Some have said it is on the margins. 

But he was not really clear if that is even the case or if he is informed of that being the case. So what we are concerned about is 

that this administration is so focused on appeasing Iran who is 

threatening even this Congress, if you enact sanctions, new sanctions to pull out of these agreements that we miss the best opportunity. 

Iran is hurting from the sanctions. We know that. The regime 

hurts because of that. And yet, we did not demand the return of 

three Americans. Not a new human rights scheme in Iran. That is 

a long-term plan that Dr. Lantos Swett and others would need to 

work on. But this was the return of three Americans and the administration, I do believe has sacrificed them and has betrayed 

them. We have used that word because we know they had an opportunity that did not exist. I was trying to make that clear to Congressman Deutch. That opportunity didn’t exist before, Congressman DeSantis, we know that. We weren’t sitting down at the table 

with the Foreign Minister of Iran. Our President wasn’t on the 

phone. But now we are and we are still, and this has been a problem with the State Department, our bureaucracy. We are still living in 2012 mindset, that we have no diplomatic relations when we 

all can read a newspaper. You don’t have to have a security clearance to know that these meetings are occurring. 

So yes, we are very concerned that if we don’t continue to speak 

out and Congress doesn’t make it clear as it has throughout this 

process, the only time we have gotten a response back from this administration, I will close with this, it has never been proactive. It 

is reactive. When President Obama made the phone call and then 

they said well, he also brought up Saeed, it was the day after the 

1-day anniversary of Saeed’s imprisonment. I was at a prayer vigil 

outside the White House. Naghmeh was at a prayer vigil and they 

were having them around the country. 

Secretary of State Clinton never spoke out even with the media 

attention, congressional support. And then Secretary Kerry basically promised during his confirmation hearings to Senator Rubio 

that he would, but he didn’t until after the Lantos Commission 

hearing. And by the way, none of that has been vocal. These have 

been two written statements from Secretary Kerry. Even when 

asked about it directly, he will never use the name. And then 

61

President Obama has also not spoken out. And so at a time—and 

then we are told well, because they become pawns and hostages. 

But Congressman Deutch used the word himself. He already called 

them, they already are hostages. And so we are extremely concerned that we missed one huge opportunity and that again we 

would just hope that in this confidential briefing, classified briefing 

to learn so that we know from you that it is not just reactive, the 

public, but that there is proactive work being done, because that 

is not clear to us. Thank you, Congressman. 

Mr. DESANTIS. Thank you and before I yield back I just want to 

say I think this needs to be a proactive priority, of course, for the 

Congress, but also for the administration. And I am skeptical 

whether you could ever deal with this Iranian regime, but the notion that you are going to get a nuclear agreement with a regime 

who will not even return a pastor who is wrongly imprisoned, give 

me a break. 

So thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. I yield 

back. 

Mr. SMITH. Well put, Mr. DeSantis, and thank you, Mr. Weber 

for your very strong intervention as well. 

If you have any further questions, I will yield to you, but just one 

final couple of thoughts. Mr. Levinson is an elderly 65-year-old 

man, suffers from diabetes and as I think all of you have said, we 

are talking about three individuals. The primary focus today obviously is on Pastor Abedini. There was a great fear for his life and 

it seems to me what happens to the nuclear negotiations if he is 

killed? I hate to be so blunt, but what happens? The whole bright 

light of scrutiny will be brought to bear on one missed opportunity 

after another and frankly, if Frank Wolf had not held that hearing 

in March, there would have been no statement of concern even 

then. 

And again, Ms. Abedini, when we all heard you testify at Mr. 

Wolf’s hearing, it was powerful. And we all thought, give it time. 

The administration, give them time. 

Just parenthetically, last week I held a hearing on human rights 

abuses in China. It was my 45th hearing on human rights abuses 

in China. We had five daughters of political prisoners testifying on 

behalf of their dads. They were eloquent beyond words, compassionate, and they love their dads who are in prison being tortured 

in Beijing. Vice President Biden was there at the time and we repeatedly asked him to raise their names. Hasn’t happened. That is 

the kind of thing, human rights cannot be put somewhere in the 

back if we expect to see progress on it. If we prioritize it, they will 

prioritize it and as you said, Dr. Lantos Swett, this is a very easy 

thing for the Iranians to do. Pastor Abedini can be on the plane 

home tonight if they make that decision. And we are admonishing 

the administration. And we have been doing, all of us, quietly after 

the hearing that was held by Frank Wolf and we are saying just 

do it. We are with you. I couldn’t have been and the others including Congressman Wolf, couldn’t have been more outspoken in 

thanking Secretary Kerry for raising the case, but now do it in a 

way that is most likely to lead to a positive outcome and that is 

his release because we are all deeply worried and concerned about 

his well being and his health. 

62

Mr. Weber, anything you want to say? I would like to give all 

four of you the opportunity if you would like to say any final comments before we close down the hearing. 

Thank you so very much and we will continue on and thankfully 

it will be done in a bipartisan way. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:43 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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