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Community Choir to lead prayer vigil today

The Fort Dodge Community Choir will host a prayer vigil for the American pastor Saeed Abedini who has been imprisoned in Iran for the past two years. The event is at 3 p.m. today at Coppin Chapel A.M.E. Church, 329 First Ave. S.

The choir was featured at a prayer vigil for Abedini on Friday at the state capitol in Des Moines.

The program will include local pastors and other speakers.

Abedini was imprisoned in July 2012 during a visit to Tehran to visit family and to finalize the board members for an orphanage he was building in Iran.

Abedini has been held in the notorious Evin Prison. Throughout his imprisonment he has spent several weeks in solitary confinement and been subject to abusive interrogations.

In early 2013, it became known that Saeed was suffering from internal injuries and doctors determined that his injuries warranted immediate attention, and, in their medical opinion, he needed to be treated in a non-prison hospital. For almost a year, the Iranian regime ignored this advice. In March 2014, Abedini was permitted to enter a private hospital for treatment, but after spending almost two months in the hospital, he was returned to prison without having been given surgeries deemed necessary by hospital doctors.

A petition has been started in Abedini ‘s name, and Secretary of State John Kerry and other U.S. officials have called for his release.

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