Women cry over the body of one of the five civilians killed during a Syrian Army bombardment on Al Qusayr Feb. 21, 2012.
Ghastly attacks on Christians mocked as "Crusaders" in Syria continued unabated as Jihadists reportedly forced one man to convert to Islam at gunpoint and slit the throat of another Christian woman's fiancé and then told her, "Jesus didn't come to save him."
Residents who fled from the ancient town of Maalula in Syria told AFP that jihadists ambushed the town last week and forced a man to convert to Islam at gunpoint.
"They arrived in our town at dawn... and shouted 'We are from the Al-Nusra Front and have come to make lives miserable for the Crusaders," said one woman identified as Marie in Damascus, where many people from Maalula fled after rebels first attacked that town on Sept. 4.
One of the most renowned Christian towns in Syria, many of Maalula's approximately 5,000 residents speak Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Rebels want to tighten their control of the town for its strategic value as a launching point to level attacks on the highway between the capital and Homs, a key regime supply route.
On Tuesday, Marie and hundreds of others in exile in Damascus, attended the burial of three Christian pro-regime militiamen who were killed in fighting.
Adnan Nasrallah, 62, told AFP that an explosion destroyed an archway just across from his house that leads into Maalula during the fighting last week.
HRANA News Agency – Maryam Naqqash Zargaran -Nasim-, of converted Christians has been issued four years of imprisonment verdict by the appealed court.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), Maryam Naqqash Zargaran has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment on charge of propagating against the Islamic regime, colluding and acting against the national security through establishing the home-churches.
The revolutionary court claimed that her activities were in direction of Britain and Israel goals to harm Iran’s national security through establishing the home-churches and disorder the Islamic society norms, then according to the article 610 of Islamic punishment law and with considering the article 46 of the same Islamic punishment law, the accused person sentenced to four years of imprisonment with counting the days of being under arrest.
It is worth noting she was appeared on July 15, 2013 in Evin prison after she has been informed of verdict and has been transferred to the women ward.
This converted Christian was under arrest once more for 19 days and was freed temporarily on bail till the trial date.
An American man was found hanged in a jail cell on Sunday in a police station near the banks of the Suez Canal.
The man, identified by the U.S. state department as 66-year-old James Lunn, had apparently committed suicide. He had been arrested on August 29 for breaking the curfew put in place amid the violent unrest that followed the military's ousting of President Mohammed Morsi in early July.
The American embassy in Cairo confirmed the death to ABC News, saying he died of "apparent suicide." The State Department also issued confirmation of the death today, and said that his family has been contacted.
Egypt officials had identified Lunn as a retired U.S. Army officer, but the U.S. State Department said Sunday that he was not a veteran. Lunn was found after breakfast was served in the Ismailia police station, hung from the bathroom door of his prison cell, Egypt's public prosecutor said. A black belt wrapped around his neck was attached with string to both his shoes, which were tangled up on the other side of the door, according to the prosecutor. The statement said that blood was seen coming from his nose and that he had already died when they found him.
His body was then sent to the morgue at the main hospital in the city for an autopsy. Egypt's public prosecutor has now ordered an official investigation into the death.
Lunn had been living alone in a town called Sheikh Zuwayed in the northeast of the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported at the time of his arrest. He was reportedly on his way to the Palestinian Gaza Strip when he was arrested for breaking the 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. curfew.
Lunn had been arrested for breaking curfew in the Sheikh Zuweyid area, where a terrorist operation was carried out targeting a police station with a car bomb, according to a statement from the prosecutor's office. Authorities found him in possession of an Egyptian map and an electronic device that's currently being examined. A consular team from the embassy had visited him at the jail last week but the embassy declined to say what Lunn was doing in the Sinai, the most violent part of the country.
Since Morsi was deposed, the already lawless Sinai has grown increasingly bloody. The ouster was followed by a military and police crackdown and there have been almost daily attacks against security targets by Islamic militants. On Friday, three soldiers and one policeman were killed when a suicide bomber drove a car bomb into a checkpoint.
HRANA News Agency – Six political prisoners of ward 350 of Evin prison have been released yesterday.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), following the recent releases of political prisoners which were announced by Mohseni Ezhei, 6 more prisoners have been released yesterday evening.
Mahmoud Vali Gholam Nejad, Mostafa Badkubei, Ali Nemati, Farzad Rouhi, Mohammad Eshagh Abadi and Bahador Alizade are the ones who were released.
Mostafa Badkubei had been arrested after the presidential elections in 2009 because of telling critical poems about Ahmadinejad and was sentenced to 18 months of prison. He started to serve the verdict on November 21, 2012.
Mohammad Gholam Nejad was sentenced to 2 years in prison on charge of supporting MEK.
Bahador Alizade and Farzad Rouhi were sentenced to 4 years and 3 years and a half in prison on charge of blasphemy and propaganda against the regime.
Ali Nemati was arrested on charge of spying and was in Evin prison without any judicial verdict.
In an unprecedented event , members of the vigilante group La Ruana , Michoacan, revealed to be " protected " from the Knights Templar with firearms which stripped the members of this criminal organization involved in drug trafficking .
This follows from the statements made to the Attorney General of the Republic a group of 31 men from the self-styled " community police " arrested by the Army in March during a raid in the town of Buenavista.These subjects were seized 48 firearms, including 33 long and 15 short and 2 000 395 cartridges of various calibers and 43 grams of marijuana .The testimonies surrendered to the Federal Public Ministry , to be corroborated during the trial that they face , it would be an unusual case in which a group of civilians robs drug dealers of their weapons to fightRead more: http://www.elblogdelnarco.com/2013/10/comunitarios-se-defienden-con-armas-de.html # ixzz2hcUpnTUrFollow us : @ MundoNarco on Twitter
The European Parliament passed a resolution Friday calling for Iran to release Pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been imprisoned in the country for over a year for his Christian faith.
-"The Christian Post,"
Mohabat News - The American Center for Law and Justice has launched the largest campaign in its history to have Abedini released by sending thousands of letters to Iran's president Hassan Rouhani. The legal group announced Friday that in addition to this campaign, it has also successfully convinced members of the European Parliament to issue a resolution requesting Abedini's release. This effort was championed both by the ACLJ and its European affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice.
The resolution states that the European Parliament "[i]s deeply concerned about the fate of Pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been detained for over a year and was sentenced to eight years of prison in Iran on charges related to his religious beliefs," according to a press release composed by the ACLJ's Executive Director Jordan Sekulow.
The press release also states that the fate of Pastor Abedini is of great concern to members of the European Parliament, and the resolution reportedly has broad cross-party support. "The fate of Pastor Saeed Abedini in Iran is also a matter of deep concern to MEPs, who called on the government to exonerate and release him immediately."
The resolution went on to call on the Middle Eastern country to ensure the right to religious freedom for all of its citizens, as well as the right for one to change their religion for whatever reason.
Several influential political and religious figures have called for Abedini's release in recent months. In late September, President Barack Obama spoke with President Rouhani regarding Abedini's imprisonment, expressing his concern that the pastor has been held for over a year for his religious beliefs. Additionally, renowned evangelical leader Billy Graham addressed a letter to President Rouhani requesting Abedini's release.
Graham wrote that he believed releasing Abedini would "have a positive impact in our nation, and might well be perceived by our leadership as a significant step in reducing tensions."
Abedini marked his one-year anniversary at Evin Prison in Tehran in late September. The pastor was arrested in 2012 and later sentenced to eight years imprisonment for allegedly threatening national security. His wife Naghmeh, and two children live in the U.S. and are being legally represented by the ACLJ.
The ACLJ has continued to assert that Abedini is being punished for his Christian faith, and has sent numerous petitions to the country signed by hundreds of thousands of people around the world calling for Abedini's release. The ACLJ said in early October that although it remains cautiously optimistic of the recent international attention brought to Abedini's case, the real victory will come when the Christian pastor is released and reunited with his family.
"Now is a critical time to act for Pastor Saeed as his case has been raised to the highest levels of both the U.S. and Iranian governments," the ACLJ said at the time, as previously reported by The Christian Post. "The world is watching."
(Photo: Reuters)
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