The following is from Voice of the Martyrs:
“On March 19, Baptist Pastor Zaur Balaev was released from prison in Azerbaijan. The release was part of a presidential amnesty on Novruz Bairam, a holiday marking the beginning of spring.
Pastor Balaev was met outside the prison by his son, and Ilya Zenchenko, head of the Baptist Union. “When Balaev was released, journalists asked whether he was feeling grateful to Azerbaijan’s president for his release, Zaur answered that he always in everything feels grateful to Jesus only and no one else. Journalists immediately quit shooting (footage) of him,” VOM contacts said.
Pastor Zaur Balaev was arrested in May 2007, for “conducting an illegal religious meeting” in his home village in Aliabad, Azerbaijan.”
For the rest of the story, please visit http://www.persecution.com/news/index.cfm?action=fullstory&newsID=598
