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Iran pressures pastor to "recant" Christian faith

>Wife was earlier detained

>Sentence part of wider crackdown

>Number Christians still growing

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani and his wife Fatemah Pasindedih.

TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- Iran's Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence of an Iranian pastor for leaving Islam and he was under pressure Saturday, July 2, to recant his faith in Christ, trial observers told BosNewsLife.

Yousef Nadarkhani, 33, had appealed to the Supreme Court after he was sentenced to death in 2010  on charges of "apostasy", or abandoning Islam, by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Iran's Gilan Province.