Saeed Malekpour is a Canadian permanent resident originally from Iran. Imprisoned in Iran since 4 October 2008, in 2010, he was sentenced to death as a result of an open source web program he created for uploading photos to the internet. The Iranian authorities said the program was used to upload photos to pornographic websites. Saeed maintains these uploads were made without his knowledge and has asked for an IT specialist to testify on his behalf - his request was denied.
Ill-treated, tortured and denied medical care until he confessed, Saaed reported his televised 'confession' was the only 'evidence' used against him in court to secure his conviction.
In 2012 his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment at the notorious Evin Prison. He was also sentenced to a further 7 years in prison for speaking out about the torture he was subjected to in pre-trial detention.
Please call on Iran to free Saaed Malekpour immediately.
Your Excellency
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
Web programmer Saeed Malekpour, a permanent resident of Canada and Iranian national, is serving life in prison in relation to a web based program he developed which was used to post pornographic images to the internet. This was an open source program and Saeed Malekpour has denied all knowledge of the program being used for this purpose.
He was further sentenced to seven and a half years’ imprisonment on vaguely worded charges, including “insulting the Leader”, “insulting the President”, “insulting Islamic sanctities”, and “spreading propaganda against the system” in relation to the web program he created and a public letter he wrote in 2010 detailing the torture to which he was subjected while in pre-trial detention. His death sentence has now been commuted to life imprisonment. He has been in prison since 4 October 2008.
I respectfully call on you to:
- Release Saeed Malekpour immediately and quash his conviction and sentence;
- Order a prompt, independent and impartial investigation into Saeed Malekpour’s allegations of torture or other ill-treatment. Bring to justice anyone suspected of responsibility in a fair trial, and without recourse to the death penalty.
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