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STEPHEN HARPER, BRING SAEED HOME!”
“CANADA, RAISE YOUR VOICE LOUDER AGAINST EXECUTIONS IN IRAN!“
Time: Thursday, February 10 · 1:30pm – 4:30pm
Location: Parliament of Canada, 1 Wellington Street, Ottawa, ON
More Info:
On Thursday, February 10th, human rights activists and concerned citizens will head to the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa and raise their voices loud against executions in Iran, focusing on the illegal imprisonment and execution sentence of Permanent Canadian Resident Saeed Malekpour
JOIN US IN OTTAWA! For Toronto residents, we will head out on Thursday at approximately 8:00am. The time is not yet confirmed. More details will be available soon
Saeed has been sentenced to DEATH
After 40 days & nights waiting, the sentence was issued yesterday. Saeed has been sentenced to DEATH. Judge Mogheise said to Saeed’s lawyer that IT WAS NOT MY DECISION, Revolutionary guards (Vezarat ) has determined the sentence.
Please find below a copy of the Petition to the House of Commons (Ottawa) regarding Saeed Malekpour.
It would be helpful if you could print this petition, sign it and ask a number your relatives and friends also sign it and then send it to the office of your local MP (federal member of parliament) and ask him/her to read this petition at the House of Commons. Also, please forward this petition to your contacts. We hope that these efforts will save Saeed’s life.
The more MPs we have on the petition, the louder our voices are and the more power we have to convince Minister of Foreign Affairs to appeal to the Iranian government.
Saeed Petition to the House of Commons
Saeed is very ill. He was taken to a hospital yesterday, after suffering for two weeks from severe chronic diarrhea.
Saeed Malekpour was taken to the court last Sunday, without his lawyer, for his new case “Propaganda against Islamic Regime” by writing a letter to IRI’s Judiciary!
Saeed’s trial is over. He and his lawyer were angry when they came out of the court room. The judge refused all their requests, although the head of Tehran judiciary department, Mr Avaee, wrote an official letter to the Judge about IT technicians. The sentence will be out in 10 days. Saeed sister said, Saeed always gave us hope, but this time he was so upset and he told us the sentence might be the harsh one
A friend of mine wrote an article in her blog about Saeed’s situation:
I learned about the case of Saeed Malekpour some months ago when he sent a prison letter describing the torture he has suffered in prison. Saeed has studied metallurgy at Sharif University of Technology, the same university at which I studied physics. The first time learning about his case when looking at his picture I vaguely felt that I have seen him before but I wasn’t sure.
Recently, I found one of my classmates from Sharif Univ. on facebook and I found out that Saeed is her husband and it started making sense to me why Saeed’s photo was so familiar to me at first glance. Zohreh Eftekhari is Saeed’s wife. Zohreh is one of the sweetest, nicest, smartest and at the same time most modest people I have ever met. My most clear memory of her is when one time in a small green area in front of the physics department called “mohavateie physics” I softly sang the song Bote Chin, Zohreh Jabin for her; after learning that it was her favorite song. She also once showed me a small book, which looked so hard and sophisticated, about particle physics and told me that she wishes that her English was so good that she could read the whole book non-stop.
Now her husband, Saeed Malekpour, is held in prison for reasons that I haven’t been able to figure out, apparently neither has Saeed himself, Zohreh, nor the judicial system.
“Rooz: Many accusations have been made against Saeed, what is the key charge against him?
Mrs. Eftekhari: It is an assortment of accusations. If they had simply said that he was the manager of an immoral website, then things would be clear and he would know how to defend himself. But every time they see him, they raise a new charge. At one point the judge told him that he had been in contact with 10 to 12 groups inimical to the regime. And when Saeed asked which groups, the judge replied that you know better. So what is there to defend? It seems that they simply want to find some excuse and pretext to find him guilty. One day they said he had relations with foreigners then on another occasion they said he operated immoral web sites. Kayhan newspaper even wrote that Saeed worked for Canadian military projects, which is just pure fabrication. From a legal perspective how could someone who was not born in Canada, is not a Canadian citizen and was even not born there work on military projects? In fact, Saeed does not truly know what is the charge against him so that he can focus his defense on that.
Rooz: Aside these, what specific charges were read out to him in court?
Mrs. Eftekhari: Propaganda against the regime, operating immoral web sites, insulting divine principles, insulting the president, relations with groups that oppose the regime, being contact with foreigners. In general, these are known as the “corrupt on the earth.”
Some parts of the interview of Rooz with Zohreh Eftekhari are so important toward a better understanding of the situation of Saeed and the judicial system currently at work in Iran:
Zohreh Eftekhari: “When I was interrogated they kept shouting at me that I was in contact with foreigners! And I told them I lived in a foreign country so what did they mean by that”.
“ They even tried to say that Saeed used his webcam to video people’s bedroom. This was done to create panic and fear among people about the Internet.”
“The judge has no knowledge about Internet or IT issues. In the 15 minutes court session, the judge told him that they had found a weblog in his house. Judge for yourself, what kind of a statement is this? They did not allow Saeed to even look at his own dossier. They also denied him access to a defense attorney.”
“At one point the judge told him that he had been in contact with 10 to 12 groups inimical to the regime. And when Saeed asked which groups, the judge replied that you know better. So what is there to defend?”
“ The intelligence officers in Iran wanted to denounce the Internet and tell people that it was a dangerous thing. This is why they forced Saeed to make false confessions and then showed this on national television. They even tried to say that Saeed used his webcam to video people’s bedroom. This was done to create panic and fear among people about the Internet. They had told Saeed to say that he had purchased software from Britain that could be used to video a room even if the computer was shut. This is not technically possible to do, but these gentlemen wanted to send that message. My husband is merely a victim of the plans of these people”.
” They have aired his so called confessions several times while he still remains only a suspect. But they treat him as if he is a criminal. His sentence has already been passed in their minds, which is why they allow themselves to air someone’s so called confessions before the person has even had a chance to defend himself and no sentence has been passed on him. These confessions were all made under duress and torture and have no validity. Saeed has said this in court. My question is how come you can air these so called confession on national television, but when it comes to Saeed’s defense you close the court session to the public“.
“They used to promise me regularly in the past that if I did not give any interviews Saeed would be released quickly. And for three months we did not know where Saeed was being kept and they would not tell us. Then on the anniversary of his father’s death, they broadcast his so called confessions on national television, which is when we learned that they had been lying to us”.
“Saeed has torture marks till today and when he speaks, he feels sharp pain in his jaw, which is the result of the tortures he has been subjected to. He has also had a mild heart attack while in prison and half his body was temporarily paralyzed”.
Please spread the word and write about Saeed’s case. As a result of his case being portrayed by the state as a “non-political” one, many websites and groups haven’t paid enough attention to Saeed’s case and that’s going to hurt him in many ways such as having a trial in better conditions or the chance to get released and so on.
Interrogators told my (husband) the judge is with them
The following is an interview with Fatemeh Eftekhari, the wife of Saeed Malekpour, by the Committee of Human Rights Reporters. Malekpour was arrested on October 5, 2009 for designing a web program that was eventually used [by someone else not connected to or affiliated with Malekpour) to post pornographic material. Malekpour has been confined in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison for 19 months. He has steadfastly maintained that he had no knowledge of the website’s content as well as having no interaction with the operators. Furthermore, he states that he generically designed the program like the many others he has made. A permanent resident of Canada, Malekpour is a metallurgical engineering graduate from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. He was arrested during a visit to Iran and now faces an intricate web of accusations against him and possibly many years in prison.
CHRR- What information do you have on the case of your husband Saeed Malekpour and the accusations made against him?
FE- The case against my husband is apparently one of national security. Yet, we have never been active in political groups or had any history of membership in a party. The charges brought against him include taking action against national security by operating pornographic websites, agitation against the regime, contact with foreign entities, insulting the sanctity of Islam, and insulting the Supreme Leader and President. These allegations are very vague and have been constantly denied by my husband in court. Unfortunately, Saeed is not completely aware of the details of the accusations made against him since upon his arrest he was coerced into signing several blank sheets of paper. During the 17 months that the authorities were carrying out the investigation they filled in the sheets however they deemed fit and created the allegations that my husband is now denying.
CHRR- How many court sessions have been held so far? Was the lawyer present at the trial and has he been able to read the relevant files for the case?
FE: To date there have been two court sessions and the judge presiding over the case, Judge Moghiseh, has informed us that there will be a third court date later this month.
The first session was on March 16th. Our lawyer was originally informed that the trial would not go ahead on that day. On the morning of March 16 my husband’s friend from Evin Prison’s Section 350 called my sister-in law and told her that Saeed will be taken before the Revolutionary Court for his ‘crimes’. Unfortunately, the lawyer was not ready to attend court that day and was away on a trip. As such, the trial began without a lawyer present for my husband. Though Saeed’s lawyer has been allowed to look through the files pertaining to the case, he has not been allowed to meet him. If my husband or his lawyer cannot analyze the details of the case and the evidence brought against him, how can this trial be deemed as fair? How can a lawyer defend his client properly if they do not even know what they are accusing him of?
CHRR- How has Mr. Malekpour’s rights been infringed upon thus far?
FE- My husband has been in temporary arrest for 19 months now and the conditions surrounding his arrest are very obscure. It seems that the judiciary worries little about the unreasonable amount of time Saeed has been in temporary custody. They show little regard for the family life that has been interrupted and the profession that has been all but abandoned. An open letter was written and addressed to the judiciary by my husband detailing the misfortune that has befallen him under this supposed honest and impartial investigation. Unmistakable signs of torture scar Saeed’s body and they bear witness to the anguish he has endured. His jaws cannot function properly because of the blows and kicks that have been made to his head and face. It is not hard to notice the damage that has been caused to his brain; his sense of recognition has been severely compromised and he has had temporary paralysis on the left side of his body. My husband’s pain has been further intensified by the psychological trauma he carries, trauma which has made his hands shake uncontrollably. All this makes evident the torture he has sustained and it will not be difficult to prove if the judge orders a forensics investigation. Yet, even if attention were to be paid to the scars left on Saeed’s body, the trial would only be fair and just if the judge is impartial and his desire is to properly execute the law, not acting on the whim of the authorities.
CHRR- During this ordeal, how have your rights been abused and what problems confront you?
FE- If I were to talk about the issues I face and the abuses I have witnessed I would take up the rest of the time we have left for this interview. Unfortunately, the suffering that my family and I have faced is not unique nor is our ordeal a new one. I continuously follow domestic events in Iran and pay close attention to the letters written by family members of individuals detained after the June 12th, 2009 election as well as the interviews they have given. As I read about these families, the memory of what I have endured for the past 19 months constantly surfaces in my mind. The parallels between our case and that of other families are striking: lack of news about the condition of loved ones in detention, unaccountable actions by judicial officials, lack of any access to lawyers, constant extension of temporary detention warrants, and most difficult of all waiting tirelessly by the telephone waiting for any news on about the loved one after their interrogation. This is a very tiresome process and destroys the resolve and composure of family members.
Whenever the phone rings my heart melts and I begin to think that maybe it’s him, Saeed. Perhaps after weeks without contact, the prison authorities have allowed him to call me. It is interesting to note that when Saeed was being interrogated the authorities informed us that he had requested not to have any contact with family or friends. Other than this, they stated nothing was preventing him from contacting us. My family was not the only one to encounter this peculiar demand; the Noorizad family was also faced with the same bizarre insistence from their imprisoned loved one.
During the initial phase of Saeed’s detention my family and I repeatedly wrote to various judicial authorities. However, no response was given to us. Ultimately, I was allowed to meet my husband and it was then that the severity of his situation became apparent to me. It was after this that our family met with the head of the Department of Justice in Tehran Province, Mr. Avayi. He listened patiently to us and promised to follow up on the case. Unfortunately, when Saeed Mortazavi was the Prosecutor-General of Tehran he would not allow any of Mr. Avayi’s representatives to meet my husband nor were they permitted to inspect the prison cell he was being kept in. However, upon the insistence and effort of Mr. Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the new Prosecutor-General, the case has noticeably increased in pace.
Persian Report by CHRR
Translation by Arash Azizi, Persian2English.com
