Saeed Malekpour.
Canada must keep up the pressure on Iran to free Saeed Malekpour, and rally other countries to do the same.
This 35-year-old website designer and Canadian resident has been sentenced to death, after being found guilty of desecrating and insulting Islam. His crime was to develop software to upload photographs – a web program that was then used by pornographic websites.
Mr. Malekpour has said that he had no knowledge his software was used for this purpose. Even if he did, his actions in no way justify the death penalty.
The Canadian government is right to call on Iran to release Mr. Malekpour – as well as the many other people imprisoned without due process. "His case is but one example of the refusal by Iranian authorities to respect their international human rights obligations," said Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird this week. Thousands of people are believed to be on death row in Iran, including Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death by stoning, or hanging, for committing adultery.
Although Canada's influence in Iran is limited, lobbying for Mr. Malekpour's release could be effective in the long run. Last year, Iran released two American hikers who were accused of espionage, in part to appear magnanimous in advance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at the United Nations General Assembly. Iran is not immune from the pressure of international condemnation.
Mr. Malekpour was arrested in 2008 during a visit to Tehran to see his terminally ill father. He was incarcerated in Evin prison, tortured and then forced into a false confession. Last year, after international outcry about his case, Iran's Supreme Court annulled his sentence. The court found a list of discrepancies in the trial that needed to be investigated. It is deeply regrettable that this decision was then reversed, and Mr. Malekpour's execution sentence re-instated in November, 2011.
Mr. Malekpour is not a domestic Iranian activist or one of the usual innocents vulnerable to the Iranian state's wanton disregard for human life. He is an engineer who had the misfortune to develop a successful website. Executing such a person is absurd, and wholly unjustified.