Pastor Saeed Abedini, who was imprisoned and tortured in Iran for nearly four years for his Christian faith, is now facing jail time in the U.S.
A judge sentenced Abedini to 180 days after he pled guilty to violating his ex-wife Naghmeh’s restraining order.
The judge then suspended all but five days of the sentence and will allow Abedini to work off those days through community service, the Idaho Statesman reported.
The paper contacted Abedini for a statement but declined.
“This was a personal matter that I won’t share in public,” Abedini said. “I will write something in my book in the future.”
The incident occurred last May and he is being credited for the one day spent in jail after being arrested on Aug. 31.
Abedini was also fined $1000, with $500 of it suspended, and placed on unsupervised probation for two years. He has been ordered to stay at least 300 yards away from Naghmeh’s home in West Boise.
The judge has arranged for a third person to transport their two children back and forth between the two parents.
No other details have been provided about the incident.
Naghmeh Abedini brought nationwide attention to her husband’s imprisonment by advocating for his release from an Iranian prison between 2012-2015.
Saeed, a former Muslim turned Christian, said he was jailed for being a Christian and refusing to renounce his faith.
He was released in January 2016.
Naghmeh filed for divorce shortly after. It is still pending.
