{"id":29610,"date":"2022-04-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/iranian-pastor-granted-temporary-furlough-from-prison-5679\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:06:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:06:57","slug":"iranian-pastor-granted-temporary-furlough-from-prison-5679","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/iranian-pastor-granted-temporary-furlough-from-prison-5679\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian pastor granted temporary furlough from prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/af1ca95ad65a4152ca619711f32376f8.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Iranian church leader Yousef Nadarkhani has been granted temporary furlough from prison and is at home with his family.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pastor Nadarkhani was released from Evin prison on 13 April. It is not currently clear why he has been released, and he is required to return to prison in five days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pastor Nadarkhani was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/2018\/07\/23\/%e6%8c%89\/4050\/article.htm\/\">arrested<\/a> along with three other members of the Church of Iran during a series of raids by security agents on Christian homes in Rasht in May 2016. While all of the men were released on bail in 2017, they were re-arrested in a series of raids from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/2018\/07\/23\/%e6%8c%89\/4050\/article.htm\/\">22-25 July 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pastor is currently serving a six-year sentence, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/2020\/06\/22\/%e6%8c%89\/4699\/article.htm\/\">reduced<\/a> from ten years, on charges of \u2018acting against national security\u2019 by \u2018promoting Zionist Christianity.\u2019 The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freedom-now.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AUV-WGAD-Opinion-83-2020-Youcef-Nadarkhani-Iran.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a>an opinion that his continued detention is arbitrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CSW\u2019s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: <b><i>\u201cCSW welcomes news of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani\u2019s temporary release, and we urge the Iranian authorities to go one step further and release this innocent man, so that he can enjoy his freedom without fear of harassment or re-arrest. We also continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all those detained on account of their religion or belief or in relation to the defence of human rights.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iranian church leader Yousef Nadarkhani has been granted temporary furlough from prison and is at home with his family.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43747,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[148,145],"class_list":["post-29610","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-iran","regions-middle-east-north-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40194,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29610\/revisions\/40194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29610"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}