Victoria man marks 10th birthday in Iran prison
Regret haunts Maryam Malekpour — a nagging, irrational fear that she’s to blame for the decade-long imprisonment of her brother, Saeed Malekpour, in an Iranian prison.
Her sin: Asking him to come to Iran to visit their father, who was dying of a brain tumour.
“Sometimes I blame myself,” said Malekpour, 37. “I was the one who told him he should come back, that if (father) dies he’s going to regret it.”
Two days after he arrived at Iran in October 2008, Saeed was snatched off the street. He was 33 — married, a Canadian resident living in Victoria, with a bright future ahead of him.
On June 5, Saeed turned 43 — his 10th birthday behind bars in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on what supporters say are spurious pornography charges.
Saeed was going to pursue a PhD in engineering at the University of Victoria, but was working on the side as a freelance web programmer. He said he had created an opensource software for uploading photos and videos onto the internet that Iranian authorities said was used by Persian porn websites.
His arrival in Iran coincided with a growing push by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to crack down on online activities it deemed corrupt.
Saeed spent a year in solitary confinement and was tortured to confess. That “confession” was used in a trial that earned him a death sentence, which was later commuted to life imprisonment. To this day, the forced confession is the only evidence produced against Saeed, said Maryam, who has dedicated her life to a campaign to free her big brother and best friend.
She fearlessly waged a media campaign to free Saeed despite threats from authorities until 2012, when she fled Iran and came to Canada, bringing with her the drive to get Saeed out of jail and keep his plight in the spotlight.
“My brother is not a politician or an actor or a journalist,” said Malekpour, who now works as a project co-ordinator for a Vancouver construction company. “He’s not famous. He’s just an ordinary person. I have to do this.”
She’s now able to talk to Saeed, who was transferred to the general ward five years ago and is allowed phone calls.
“He says he’s OK, but I don’t know,” she said. “He’s a positive person and is trying his best to stay hopeful.”
In two months, Maryam will become a Canadian citizen. But what would have been a proud moment is dimmed by disappointment in the lack of action from the Canadian government, she said.
In a statement, Global Affairs Canada said it’s concerned about Iran’s humanrights situation, including Saeed’s case.
“The discussion of consular cases and human-rights cases like this one has been at the centre of interactions between Canadian officials with Iranian authorities, including Minister (Chrystia) Freeland and her counterpart,” said spokeswoman Brianne Maxwell.