Grave of martyred pastor destroyed in Iran

Monday, January 13, 2020

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) - The grave of an Assemblies of God pastor from Mashad, Iran--the same town in which Soleimani replacement Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani rose through the ranks--was destroyed this past December by the Iranian regime.

Hussein Soodman was the only Christian in Iran to be formally put to death for the "apostasy" of converting from Islam to Christianity when a Sharia court sentenced him in December 1990, ending his 24 years of ministry in the Islamic Republic.

Esmail Qaani, who has taken over as Quds Force commander in place of slain terrorist leader and Hezbollah architect Qassem Soleimani, was appointed deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Mashad in 1988 and thus would have wielded a measure of authority in the decision to condemn pastor Soodman.

Converting to any form of Christianity, whether in its legal high-church form or illegal house church form, carries the penalty of death in Iran.