Iranian officials at the embassy in Ottawa have told Antonella Mega that it would be “helpful” if she went to Iran to address the case in person.
Mega’s husband, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, 42, was arrested in 2008 while visiting family, and was later charged with espionage.
Ghassemi-Shall was sentenced to death in 2009 and an Iranian court rejected his appeal.
He is awaiting execution in Evin prison, where another Iranian-Canadian, photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, was beaten, raped and killed in 2003.
CBC News said Iranian officials haven’t been clear whether Mega will be permitted to see her husband, but she remains hopeful and plans to go as soon as her visa is approved.
Mega also says she is thankful for the Canadian govern-ment’s calls to the Iranian government to grant clemency to her husband.
Last Wednesday, the minister in charge of consular affairs, Diane Ablonczy, introduced a motion in the House of Commons that says: “That this House urgently appeals to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to grant clemency to Hamid Ghassemi-Shall on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, calls for his release and return to his family and spouse in Canada, and urges Iran to reverse its current course and to adhere to its international human rights obligations.”
That language was adopted unanimously by all parties in the House of Commons.
Officials from Turkey and Brazil have also protested Ghassemi-Shall’s sentence and asked Iran to show clemency.
Mega last spoke to her husband three weeks earlier. She says it is hard to help her husband be optimistic.
