Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was sentenced to death for apostacy, has been released from jail. Initial reports by some small Christian news agencies have now been confirmed by mainstream media. The Financial Times’ Monavar Khalaj reports “Mohammad-Ali Dadkhah, Mr Nadarkhani’s lawyer, said the court had ‘finally accepted our argument’ that Iran’s penal code did not ‘criminalise apostasy’. ‘He was released from prison [on Saturday] after three years and has been reunited with his family now,’ Mr Dadkhah told the Financial Times on Sunday.”

The CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide) news agency reported Pastor Nadarkhani was arrested in his home city of Rasht in 2009 soon after questioning the Muslim monopoly of religious instruction for children, which he felt was unconstitutional. Nadarkhani was charged with apostasy after he complained that new government regulations requiring that his two sons, Daniel (10) and Yoel (8) be instructed in Islam in school violated the Iranian constitution’s guarantee of the free practice of religion. He was sentenced to death for apostasy in 2010, a decision that was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011. Although the Iranian penal code did not specify death for apostasy, a constitutional loop-hole allowed judges to refer to Shari’a and authoritative fatwas to justify such a sentence. Today the Pastor had been expected to face new charges for unspecified crimes, but was instead released.

Nadarkhani was sentenced to three years jail for evangelising Muslims, but released because he had already served that time in jail.

The picture with this story comes from the Cranmer blog and shows Nadarkhani greeting his family outside the jail.