military hospital in Germany where the Idaho pastor received medical attention, said on Wednesday that Saeed was “in great shape” physically and looked “strong.”Īt times, Abedini was convinced he wouldn’t make it out of jail alive, Pittenger said, but his captors began treating him better in the last months of his ordeal. Robert Pittenger, who spoke with Saeed at a U.S. She said she and their children - Rebekka, 9, and Jacob, 7 - will join him there on Monday. Saeed Abedini, who arrived in the United States on Thursday, will spend several days with his parents at a North Carolina retreat run by Graham, his wife said. ![]() President Obama, too, spoke with her, promising that he would do all he could to secure her husband’s release. Ted Cruz prayed for Abedini outside the White House, and Donald Trump hosted Naghmeh Abedini at a meeting in New York. Politicians, too, advocated on his behalf. Graham and other faith leaders took up the cause of Saeed Abedini, whom they saw as a symbol of Christian persecution. “Ultimately, they need to reunite that love and that connection.” “You wish it was as easy as, everyone’s fine, but 3-1/2 years of separation and disconnection,” he said. Luke Caldwell, a family friend and son of the founder of Cavalry Chapel where the Abedinis attend church, described their reunion as a “complex situation” that requires “a lot of prayer and support.” Franklin Graham, who advocated for Saeed’s release from prison, said, “I can’t speak to his thoughts or reaction to anything Naghmeh has said or written about their marriage.” Mark DeMoss, a spokesman for Christian evangelist Rev. Half a dozen Saeed Abedini supporters reached by Reuters all said they had no direct knowledge of any abuse. She declined to elaborate on the nature of the abusive behavior. During that time, Naghmeh said, her husband became increasingly abusive, possibly because of his long confinement. Later, she said, the couple communicated directly on a number of occasions by phone or Skype. “I just remember yelling into the phone, ‘We’re going to get you out! Hang in there!’” He could barely hear me,” Naghmeh Abedini recalled. His parents subsequently moved to the United States. In the first months of her husband’s confinement, Abedini said, their contact was limited to what she called “phone-to-phone calls.” He would occasionally be allowed to call his parents in Tehran, and they would then dial her on a separate line and hold the phones together. ![]() Naghmeh Abedini said she expects the family will enter counseling, and that she will continue working to promote religious freedom and bring attention to Christian persecution. “My Christian faith does give me a lot of hope in that.” “I have hope that we can work through all the issues and we can restore our marriage,” Naghmeh Abedini, 38, told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview. He was arrested after returning to Iran for what was supposed to be a short trip to set up an orphanage. citizen, was sentenced by an Iranian court in 2013 to eight years in prison for allegedly compromising Iran’s national security by setting up home-based Christian churches there. “I came to know her through the meetings at the State Department, but in terms of private life, that wasn’t my business.” “I dealt with it strictly from a political standpoint,” she said. Suzan Johnson Cook, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom under Obama for more than two years until late 2013, said she was not aware of any abuse allegations during the time she advocated on Saeed Abedini’s behalf. Saeed Abedini was traveling to Asheville, North Carolina on Thursday and could not be reached for comment. Reuters could not independently confirm Abedini’s allegations about her husband. ![]() Her note described “physical, emotional, psychological and sexual” abuse by her husband, who she said was addicted to pornography. The relationship, she said, has been strained in recent months by the publication of an email she sent to friends and supporters late last year. In an interview at her parent’s home in Boise, Idaho on Wednesday, Abedini said that rebuilding their marriage after her husband’s imprisonment will take time. citizen Saeed Abedini who was detained in Iran in 2012, is pictured in the home of her parents in West Boise, Idaho, January 20, 2016. Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of naturalized U.S.
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