Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour wins reprieve from death in Iran

Tehran's Evin prison

For 6 months Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour has been living in the shadow of death in Iran’s feared Evin prison. But the Supreme Court has rescinded the death sentence and the case against him is being reviewed.

“It is a great relief,” said his wife, Fatima Eftekhari. “One month ago his lawyer said there was a possibility the sentence would be stopped. But I didn’t get an email to confirm it until Friday."

Malekpour, a 35-year-old Iranian-born engineer, was charged with designing websites that had pornographic content, and “insulting Islam."

The case will be sent back to the court for a new penalty, Eftekhari said, and Malekpour should be transferred back to a public cell after more than half a year in solitary confinement.

“I am so glad that at least his life has been saved,” she said. “In Iran, they find it easy to kill people, and one more or less wouldn’t be an issue."

The couple lived in Richmond Hill after emigrating to Canada, and Malekpour worked on contract as a website developer. But he was arrested on a family visit to Tehran in October, 2008.

In a letter from jail he said that he had been tortured to extract a forced confession, and last December was handed a death sentence and placed in isolation pending execution. The reprieve follows a presentation of evidence by defence lawyers, who operate under severe constraints in Iranian courts. Eftekhari credits a vigorous campaign by human rights groups.

Meanwhile, Canadian Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, a Toronto salesman, is still on death row on espionage charges that human rights groups say are spurious.

Thousands of political prisoners are being held in Iran, amid a wave of executions.

One of the latest is Shahin Negari, an Iranian microbiologist who studied at University of Ottawa.

His arrest was part of an ongoing crackdown on members of the Baha’i faith, who have been severely persecuted since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Last month the Iranian authorities arrested 16 Baha’is in an attempt to shut down the online Baha’i Institute of Higher Education, which grants degrees to members who are otherwise barred from studying at Iranian universities.

“We don’t know what the charges against them are,” said Shahram Negari, Shahin’s brother, who now lives in Toronto. “They are all being held in Evin prison, but they have only been allowed one phone call each."

On Monday the Iranian ministry of science and technology declared that all the institute’s activities “lack legal validity,” including its degrees and diplomas.

Iranian forces had already shut down science and research facilities in several major cities.

Iran’s hardline Shiite clerics see other religions as a threat to their regime, although other faiths are in the minority. Christians and Jews are not officially barred from practicing their faith, but discrimination and repression have dramatically dwindled their numbers since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“Baha’is are treated differently,” says Gerald Filson, director of public affairs for the Baha’i Community of Canada. “They’re seen as a cult, a sect or a political faction, although they do not take a political stand."

Iran is the birthplace of the Baha’i faith, which focuses on the unity of humankind. Founded in the 19th century, it now has more than 5 million adherents and its operations are based in Haifa, Israel.

But their contention of their founder, Baha’u’llah, that he was a messenger of God, has made them outcasts for three decades of Islamic rule. Muslims consider the Prophet Mohammed the last prophet.

The U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, which monitors worldwide freedom of religion, reported that 200 Baha’i leaders have been killed since 1979, more than 10,000 have lost government and university jobs, and they’re barred from practicing their faith.

They’re also denied the right to inherit property, their marriages and divorces are not recognized, and they have difficulty obtaining death certificates. The commission said that their cemeteries, holy places and property is “often seized or desecrated."

“Baha’is started a university because they had no other chance for higher education,” says Filson. But they’ve been recognized by many graduate programs in North America and Europe, and their graduates have studied in 6 major universities in Canada.

Source: The Star, June 7, 2011

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