relatives
Two of the three Iranian-Canadian men being held
in Iran’s Evin prison are facing charges that warrant the death penalty in the Islamic Republic, while the third has been sentenced to almost 20 years in prison.
Saeed Malekpour moved to Ontario in 2008 after leaving Iran in 2004. Arriving in Canada with a degree in metallurgical engineering from Iran, he was set to enroll in a master’s program at the University of Victoria. But when he found out that his father was dying in Tehran, he decided to pay his father a visit, fearing that might be the last time he would see him.
It was only four days after arriving in Iran before the authorities arrested Malekpour and put him in Evin prison. Malekpour is awaiting what the court has reportedly told him might well be a death sentence.
Malekpour’s cellmate, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall of Toronto, is also facing execution.
And Toronto blogger Hossein Derakhshan is serving a 20-year sentence in prison.
The three Iranian-Canadians have been charged with offences ranging from insulting Islam to cyber crimes and plotting against the Islamic regime in Tehran.
Malekpour’s wife, Fatima Eftekhari, is a physicist and research scientist from St. Catharines, Ontario. She told the Toronto Star, “He disappeared four days after his arrival. He went to the university to get a confirmation of his degree for his master’s application. Then my sister-in-law called me in the middle of the night and said that Saeed hadn’t come home.”
Eftekhari arrived in Tehran three weeks later. “I got a call from somebody who didn’t introduce himself. He said, ‘If you want to know about your husband, come to this address.’ When I reached it, they held me for four hours, interrogated me, insulted me, screamed at me and treated me like a criminal. I was panicked. There were three of them, all big men. I just kept thinking I would never see my husband or parents again. Here [in Canada], if you’re detained, you can hire a lawyer. In Iran everything is hidden. And then you’re gone.”
Eftekhari was soon released and later allowed a brief visit with her husband, whom she described as “almost unrecognizable.” He had apparently been tortured in detention for more than one month at that point. But Malekpour urged Eftekhari to leave Iran, and she quickly did.
From his prison cell, Malekpour wrote letters to his family. One of the letters, in which he described his situation in prison, reached his family.
“After severe beatings, one of the interrogators threatened to pull out my tooth with a pair of tongs,” he wrote, as quoted by the Toronto Star. “One of my [teeth] broke and my jaw was displaced after I was kicked in the face. However, the physical tortures were nothing compared to the psychological torments. I endured long solitary confinement (totaling more than one year), constant threats to arrest and torture my wife and family if I did not cooperate, threats to kill me.”
Malekpour was forced to confess to the crimes leveled on him, a seemingly common requirement of the Islamic Republic. When he did, he authorities reportedly told him to expect a death sentence. The verdict is to be delivered later this month.
Because he was a computer programmer in Canada, Malekpour was charged with “Internet offences,” that included “designing and moderating adult content websites” as well as agitating against the regime, insulting Iran’s president and Supreme Leader, and having contact with “foreign entities.” In addition to those charges, Malekpour might also face charges of being a “corrupter of the earth,” a charge that warrants the death penalty.
Malekpour’s cellmate, Ghassemi-Shall—a citizen of Canada—has reportedly already been condemned to death.
Like Malekpour, Ghassemi-Shall—who worked as a shoe salesman in Toronto—was visiting a sick relative in Iran when he was arrested two years ago on spying charges, shortly after his brother in Tehran was arrested, jailed and then died in detention.
Another Iranian-Canadian is also being held in Iran. Derakhshan is known for popularizing blogging in Iran and for helping members of the Iranian diaspora voice their opinions via blog sites. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail for “cooperating with a hostile regime” and spreading propaganda; the charge is partially due to time he spent in Israel—the Islamic Republic’s arch enemy.
Relations between Tehran and Ottawa have remained tense since 2003, when Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi died in custody in Tehran. Since then, relations between the two countries have worsened, with Ottawa and then Tehran expelling their respective ambassadors in 2007.
“There’s a pervasive culture of brutality, and people can be arrested for any number of reasons,” McGill University law professor and former UN prosecutor Payam Akhavan told the Toronto Star. “It shows that Iran is much more chaotic than we believe it to be. There’s in-fighting among various groups who have their own agendas. Even people who think they are immune can be arrested. At the end of the day, the regime has to understand there is a price to pay for human rights violations.”
by Grace Nasri
