(RNS) — Evangelical pastor Saeed Abedini was once an international symbol of a Christian being persecuted for his faith. Now, he’s been accused in a lawsuit of abducting his 5-year-old daughter from her mother in Turkey and fleeing the country.
A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia issued a restraining order last week barring Abedini from taking his daughter out of the country or out of Virginia, where he resides. The judge also ordered him to surrender his passport and barred him from concealing his daughter’s whereabouts from the court.
Abedini, who was born Muslim in Iran and converted to Christianity, told Religion News Service that he fled Turkey out of fear for his life and to protect his daughter. “I’m concerned for my daughter’s safety more than anything,” he told RNS in a phone interview on Wednesday (June 24).
According to a recent complaint filed in U.S. federal court, Niloofar Ilbaki Aragh, the girl’s mother and an Iranian refugee living in Turkey, said she met Abedini while he was serving as a pastor and the two began a romantic relationship in 2019. Their daughter was born two years later.
The two are not legally married but lived together from 2019 to 2023, according to the complaint. Instead, Aragh alleged that Abedini performed a religious ceremony, which he said counted as a marriage. She also alleged he was verbally and physically abusive.
According to the complaint, the child was picked up by Abedini to visit her paternal grandmother in December 2024 and was to return to her home in Turkey after the New Year. Instead, the girl was taken to the United States.
“The child’s habitual residence at the time of removal was Turkey, where she was born and lived with the Mother from birth,” according to the complaint, which cites the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. “The Father removed the child from Turkey to the United States without the Mother’s consent and in circumvention of a Turkish court order that barred Respondent from leaving Turkey.”
The complaint also alleges Abedini is considered a fugitive by the Turkish government and is under investigation for abuse.
In a text message cited in the complaint, Abedini told Aragh he was fleeing legal troubles.
“Don’t worry, I will take your daughter to a good country. The state here is already corrupt, nothing is being done for me,” he allegedly texted her. “They will put me in prison, and your child will be left without a father.”
Saeed Abedini, right, the Iranian American pastor released from Iran, is greeted by his parents, sister and Franklin Graham after arriving on Jan. 21, 2016, in the United States. (Photo by David K. Morrison, courtesy of Samaritan’s Purse)
The lawsuit is the latest legal trouble for Abedini, an evangelical pastor and U.S. citizen who was jailed by Iranian officials from 2012 to 2016. At the time of his arrest, he had been working with Christian churches in Iran. His plight led to a massive “Save Saeed” social media campaign that caught the attention of the White House. In 2016, he was freed as part of a prisoner exchange in Iran.
However, a few months before he was released, Abedini’s then-wife, Naghmeh Panahi, told supporters that Abedini had long been abusive. The couple later divorced, and in 2018, Abedini was arrested for violating a no-contact order. He had also been previously arrested in 2007 for domestic abuse, had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation.
Abedini has long denied any wrongdoing. In 2021, he told RNS he was a victim of false allegations.
“I never saw anyone be a used and abused person like myself,” he said at the time.
He told RNS he faces death threats from Iran because he is a Christian Zionist. He plans to tell his story in court next week and in the second volume of his book, which will be out later this year. Abedini, who lives in Lynchburg, Virginia, is representing himself in court.
“I’m the first Iranian Zionist pastor, they hate it, and so they are doing exactly the same way that the Iranian regime did,” he told RNS. “So, for the safety of myself and my daughter, I chose this direction.”
In granting the restraining order, U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon wrote that Aragh is likely to prevail in her legal claims. The next hearing in the case is set for Tuesday.
