Message from Saeed Malekpour’s Sister to Supporters

Dear friends, family, human rights activists, journalists, and every single individual who has helped me in my pursuit for my brother’s freedom:

The past seven years have been painful and traumatizing for Saeed, me and the rest of the family. We have endured much hardship, but your tremendous support has encouraged us to remain patient and steadfast in our pursuit of freedom. Thank you for helping raise awareness about my brother’s case and pushing for his release. In 2012, when Iran’s Supreme Court confirmed Saeed’s death sentence, your strong objections to the unlawful verdict moved world leaders to also support the case, which ultimately led Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to call off the execution order. But, our nightmare is not over yet, Saeed is still in prison and he’s sentenced to life. It is very hard to believe that Iranian authorities are refusing to release Saeed even though they have never possessed a single piece of evidence to convict him. We have written multiple letters to Iranian authorities requesting from them to review Saeed’s case and release him, but we have always been faced with silence. With every day that passes it becomes increasingly clear that Iranian authorities have no intention of releasing Saeed until his imprisonment becomes a liability for them. There are talks of the government of Canada looking to open diplomatic relations with the government of Iran, this would be the right time for Foreign Minister Stephane Dion and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to secure Saeed’s release from prison and safe return to Canada.

I need your help once again to shine a spotlight on Saeed’s case in order to get world leaders to take action for Saeed’s freedom. I hope you will continue to stand with me and help push for my brother’s release.

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:

If you’re a Canadian, please help me collect signatures for an official petition to the House of Commons that calls on the government of Canada to intervene on Saeed’s behalf to the government of Iran for the coordination of his immediate release. Please click here to download the petition. I need you to print it out and collect a minimum of 25 signatures from Canadian residents. Once you have at least 25 signatures, you will need to deliver the petition to your local Member of Parliament. If you need help finding your local MP, click here.

For everyone else, please sign a new petition I created for Saeed on Change.org and distribute widely. Canadians, please also sign the Change.org petition and share it.

If you would like to do more, please write a letter to Justin Trudeau or Stephane Dion and ask them to help secure Saeed’s release.

Contact information for Justin Trudeau:
Email: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
Mailing Address:
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900

Contact information for Stephane Dion:
Email: stephane.dion@parl.gc.ca
Mailing Address:
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario Canada
K1A 0A6
Fax: 613-996-6562

Sincerely,

Maryam Malekpour

My Letter to Canada’s Foreign Minister

I’m still waiting for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to respond to the letter I wrote him in before the Christmas holidays. In the meantime, I have written a letter to Canada’s Foreign Minister, Stephane Dion. Hoping the Trudeau government will issue a response soon.

To The Honourable Stéphane Dion,

My brother Saeed Malekpour, a Canadian resident, is imprisoned in Iran and his case requires your urgent attention. On behalf of the Malekpour family, I am requesting from the Canadian Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister to intervene on Saeed’s behalf to the government of Iran for the coordination of his immediate release.

We have been living a nightmare for the past seven years, since 2008 when IRGC agents kidnapped Saeed. To this day no evidence has ever been presented to prove the trumped up charges against him. He was held in prison for two years without charge then sentenced to death in a sham trial in 2010. The so called evidence the Judiciary used to convict him were hours of confessions my brother gave under extreme physical and psychological torture. In 2010 Saeed released a letter from prison stating on record that his confessions were false and detailed some of the tortures he has endured.

We are grateful for the help the Canadian government and human rights groups have given to Saeed in pushing for his release. Global attention on the case helped pressure Iranian authorities enough to quash Saeed’s death sentence in 2015. However, the five years he spent living with the fear of execution will likely stay with him, and so will the five years our family spent in a state of hell worrying for his life while trying to get the Iranian authorities to hear us out. Though we are no longer living in the shadow of death, we still need to get Saeed out of prison. We have taken every avenue possible to reach out to Iranian authorities, but to no avail.

There is no sign that they plan on releasing him any time soon. It is clear that to the Iranian authorities Saeed’s case was never about moderating “obscene” websites, my brother is a political hostage who will only be released with the right amount of diplomatic pressure. I ask you to ensure that human rights – especially the case of Saeed and other Canada-linked prisoners (like Mostafa Azizi) – is always placed at the forefront of any talks with the government of Iran. I have heard Canada is thinking of reopening diplomatic relations with the government of Iran, this would be the best time to call for Saeed’s release and safe return to Canada.

Saeed, a freelance web programmer, immigrated to Canada in 2004 and was awaiting Canadian citizenship when he returned to Iran in October 2008 to visit our fatally ill father. Shortly after his arrival, he was illegally nabbed by agents of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and brutally tortured. He was accused of moderating pornographic websites without any evidence presented to convict him. In an attempt to intimidate the family into silence, Iranian authorities issued multiple threats against us. It got so dangerous that I was forced to flee Iran. With the help of the Canadian government I was able to seek refuge in Canada. I am now safe in Canada and have started building a life while also advocating for my brother’s release.

It is very clear there is no legal justification for Saeed’s imprisonment. What he has gone through in Iran is a an insult to any Canadian’s sense of justice. Opening up relations with the government of Iran while Saeed remains in prison would place Canadian values at stake. Please do whatever you can to ensure Saeed’s release and safe return to Canada.

Sincerely,

Maryam Malekpour

Canadians, Take Action for Saeed Malekpour

Dear friends and supporters in Canada,

I am requesting from ALL residents of Canada to help me call on the government of Canada to intervene on Saeed’s behalf to the government of Iran for the coordination of his immediate release. To do this, we need to gather petition signatures from as many Canadian residents as possible.  Click here to download the petition. Please print it out and collect a minimum of 25 signatures from ANY Canadian resident. Once you have at least 25 signatures, please deliver the petition to your local Member of Parliament. Find your local MP here.

Saeed is still in prison and, if Iranian authorities have it their way, he may be there for life. Saeed is a political hostage who will only be released with the right amount of diplomatic pressure.

Thank you for your continued support,

Maryam Malekpour

 

Canadian Resident Spends Nowruz in Evin Prison for the Seventh Year in a Row

Saeed Malekpour is spending Nowruz in Evin Prison for the seventh year in a row. He’s currently held in a general ward, which means there is less pressure on him now than compared to when he was held in Ward 2A. He hasn’t had any visitors for the past year, prison authorities won’t allow him any; this is torture. But, things were much worse for him his six years in ward 2A: a place that doesn’t fall under prison jurisdiction and is fully run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He was transferred after his case received much international attention in spring 2014.

Saeed lived in the shadow of death for five of the years in Ward 2A, sentenced to die for waging war against god and corruption on earth through allegedly moderating multiple pornographic websites. To this day no Iranian authority has presented any evidence other than forced confessions to prove that Saeed’s “guilty” of any type of “crime” that warrants imprisonment or the death sentence. His execution was stopped twice – the first time by the Iranian Supreme Court due to irregularities and inconsistencies in the case file, the second time by Iran’s leader Ali Khamenei through a pardon; but the imprisonment sentence remains for no given reason…It’s not certain when the authorities will release him.

For the first two years of Saeed’s arrest he was abused to extreme levels by IRGC officials. They tortured him to the point that he agreed to give televised confessions. Some details of his torture are in the letter he wrote and smuggled out of prison: http://j.mp/xIiz80 His sister Maryam Malekpour has said that the full letter is too gruesomely disturbing to share publicly.

In 2008 the IRGC had established a group known as the Iranian Cyber Army. Their main goal is to crackdown on obscene and immoral websites online. Their first main project consisted of bringing down pornographic websites and tracking down their moderators/owners. The main target was called Avizoon, a site which at that time was among the top three most visited in Iran. The IRGC brought it down in 2009.

When Saeed returned to Iran from Canada in 2008 to visit his ailing father, the IRGC authorities hit the jackpot, they captured him and locked him up. They accused him of moderating porn sites, namely Avizoon. Despite the lack of evidence, Iranian authorities insisted he was the moderator, but according to Saeed, he had created a picture upload program for a client whom he acquired through freelance, and was unaware of which sites the code was used in. Apparently, the authorities found the code along with Saeed’s name in it when they hacked Avizoon.

Now that they had Saeed, they were able to close the case on Avizoon, which meant that they could receive more money for a next project. According to sources, the cyber army was receiving millions of dollars for each project. They became very rich after Saeed.

Every day that Saeed remains imprisoned, it becomes increasingly clear that to the Iranian authorities, he is just a pawn in a bloody chess game. Even though he is now in the general ward and no longer living in the shadow of death, his fate still remains in the hands of the IRGC and, ultimately, the leader of Iran.

May Saeed be released any day now.

Last night Amnesty Toronto held an event for Nowruz and highlighted several political prisoners, including Saeed. His sister sent a note that was read to the audience:

This is the seventh Nowruz that Saeed is spending in prison. This is the seventh Nowruz that Saeed is not by his family’s side. Thank you to all the people who have stood by Saeed’s and my side and continue to do so. I hope that this will be a good year for us all – a year where we can celebrate the release of our dear ones from prison – a year where all the locks and chains are opened and all the pain, suffering and distance become nothing more than memories – a year where we are all feeling good. Happy New Year.

Iran: Lehrkräfte streiken landesweit

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Bookmark speichern oder einem Freund mailen

Iran: KrankenpflegerInnen vor dem Parlament

Am Sonntag, den 22. Februar 2015, versammelten sich anfänglich erst 1000, im Laufe der Zeit an die 2000 Krankenpfleger und Krankenschwester vor der nördlichen Eingangstür des iranischen Parlaments. Sie protestierten dagegen, dass zwar ein Gesetz über Lohnerhöhungen für Ärzte und Pflegepersonal verabschiedet wurde, aber nur der Teil sofort umgesetzt wurde, der die Ärzte betrifft. Die Pflegekräfte gingen dagegen bis jetzt leer aus. Darauf erschien der Vorsitzende des Sozialausschusses und meinte, sie seien an der falschen Adresse, das Parlament sei nur für die Verabschiedung der Gesetze zuständig, mehr nicht. Die Protestierenden waren empört, auch kritisierten einige, dass nicht der Sozialausschuss, sondern der Gesundheitsausschuss zuständig sei, und statt der Ausschuss-Vorsitzenden sollte eigentlich der Minister Rede und Antwort stehen.

Bookmark speichern oder einem Freund mailen

Iran: KrankenpflegerInnen vor dem Parlament

Am Sonntag, den 22. Februar 2015, versammelten sich anfänglich erst 1000, im Laufe der Zeit an die 2000 Krankenpfleger und Krankenschwester vor der nördlichen Eingangstür des iranischen Parlaments. Sie protestierten dagegen, dass zwar ein Gesetz über Lohnerhöhungen für Ärzte und Pflegepersonal verabschiedet wurde, aber nur der Teil sofort umgesetzt wurde, der die Ärzte betrifft. Die Pflegekräfte gingen dagegen bis jetzt leer aus. Darauf erschien der Vorsitzende des Sozialausschusses und meinte, sie seien an der falschen Adresse, das Parlament sei nur für die Verabschiedung der Gesetze zuständig, mehr nicht. Die Protestierenden waren empört, auch kritisierten einige, dass nicht der Sozialausschuss, sondern der Gesundheitsausschuss zuständig sei, und statt der Ausschuss-Vorsitzenden sollte eigentlich der Minister Rede und Antwort stehen.

Bookmark speichern oder einem Freund mailen

Iran: KrankenpflegerInnen vor dem Parlament

Am Sonntag, den 22. Februar 2015, versammelten sich anfänglich erst 1000, im Laufe der Zeit an die 2000 Krankenpfleger und Krankenschwester vor der nördlichen Eingangstür des iranischen Parlaments. Sie protestierten dagegen, dass zwar ein Gesetz über Lohnerhöhungen für Ärzte und Pflegepersonal verabschiedet wurde, aber nur der Teil sofort umgesetzt wurde, der die Ärzte betrifft. Die Pflegekräfte gingen dagegen bis jetzt leer aus. Darauf erschien der Vorsitzende des Sozialausschusses und meinte, sie seien an der falschen Adresse, das Parlament sei nur für die Verabschiedung der Gesetze zuständig, mehr nicht. Die Protestierenden waren empört, auch kritisierten einige, dass nicht der Sozialausschuss, sondern der Gesundheitsausschuss zuständig sei, und statt der Ausschuss-Vorsitzenden sollte eigentlich der Minister Rede und Antwort stehen.

Bookmark speichern oder einem Freund mailen

Iran: KrankenpflegerInnen vor dem Parlament

Am Sonntag, den 22. Februar 2015, versammelten sich anfänglich erst 1000, im Laufe der Zeit an die 2000 Krankenpfleger und Krankenschwester vor der nördlichen Eingangstür des iranischen Parlaments. Sie protestierten dagegen, dass zwar ein Gesetz über Lohnerhöhungen für Ärzte und Pflegepersonal verabschiedet wurde, aber nur der Teil sofort umgesetzt wurde, der die Ärzte betrifft. Die Pflegekräfte gingen dagegen bis jetzt leer aus. Darauf erschien der Vorsitzende des Sozialausschusses und meinte, sie seien an der falschen Adresse, das Parlament sei nur für die Verabschiedung der Gesetze zuständig, mehr nicht. Die Protestierenden waren empört, auch kritisierten einige, dass nicht der Sozialausschuss, sondern der Gesundheitsausschuss zuständig sei, und statt der Ausschuss-Vorsitzenden sollte eigentlich der Minister Rede und Antwort stehen.

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