Canadian Web programmer Saeed Malekpour faces impending execution in Iran, confirms the Iranian media. This is after a high court reinstated his death sentence for allegedly moderating a pornographic website.
Malekpour coded and developed a photo-sharing tool that he uploaded on the Internet. Because this program was used without his knowledge for the distribution of pornography, Iranian authorities charged him with "insulting and desecrating Islam."
In 2004, Malekpour moved to Canada with his wife to pursue higher education and eventually became a permanent resident of the country. After his acceptance at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, he returned to Iran to visit his ailing father in October 2008. During this visit, he was immediately arrested, according to Amnesty International. In October, he was sentenced to the death penalty after a short and quick trial.
For almost a year, Malekpour was detained in solitary confinement without any legal representation at Iran's notorious Evin Prison. In 2009, he confessed to his crimes on the Islamic Republic's state television. He later retracted his statement detailing that numerous prison maltreatments and beatings compelled his earlier false confession.
In a letter to Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Malekpour says, "A large portion of my confession was extracted under pressure, physical and psychological torture, threats to myself and my family, and false promises of immediate release upon giving a false confession to whatever the interrogators dictated. ... Such mistreatment was aimed at forcing me to write what the interrogators were dictating, and to compel me to play a role in front of the camera based on their scenarios."
Tuesday, Malekpour's lawyers were unable to determine the location of his court files and feared that this was an indicator that his sentence is to be carried out. They then determined Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the sentence on Jan. 17 and the file had been forwarded to the Office of Implementation of Sentences.
Source: http://voices.yahoo.com/canadian-web-programmer-executed-iran-10984842.html?cat=62
Malekpour coded and developed a photo-sharing tool that he uploaded on the Internet. Because this program was used without his knowledge for the distribution of pornography, Iranian authorities charged him with "insulting and desecrating Islam."
In 2004, Malekpour moved to Canada with his wife to pursue higher education and eventually became a permanent resident of the country. After his acceptance at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, he returned to Iran to visit his ailing father in October 2008. During this visit, he was immediately arrested, according to Amnesty International. In October, he was sentenced to the death penalty after a short and quick trial.
For almost a year, Malekpour was detained in solitary confinement without any legal representation at Iran's notorious Evin Prison. In 2009, he confessed to his crimes on the Islamic Republic's state television. He later retracted his statement detailing that numerous prison maltreatments and beatings compelled his earlier false confession.
In a letter to Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Malekpour says, "A large portion of my confession was extracted under pressure, physical and psychological torture, threats to myself and my family, and false promises of immediate release upon giving a false confession to whatever the interrogators dictated. ... Such mistreatment was aimed at forcing me to write what the interrogators were dictating, and to compel me to play a role in front of the camera based on their scenarios."
Tuesday, Malekpour's lawyers were unable to determine the location of his court files and feared that this was an indicator that his sentence is to be carried out. They then determined Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the sentence on Jan. 17 and the file had been forwarded to the Office of Implementation of Sentences.
Source: http://voices.yahoo.com/canadian-web-programmer-executed-iran-10984842.html?cat=62
