PRISON FOR CHRISTMAS
In the Middle East, five men remain locked up, distressing their families in Canada,
For many Canadians, it’s the season to be jolly, with thousands packing to go home for the holidays.
But for five imprisoned men with strong ties to Canada, and their despairing families, there’s little joy and even smaller expectation of a family reunion anytime soon. Saeed Malekpour and Mostafa Azizi Iranian-born Canadian residents Saeed Malekpour, under a life sentence on widely decried charges of masterminding an Internet pornography ring, and writer and filmmaker Mostafa Azizi, serving eight years for “collusion against Iran,” are in Tehran’s grim Evin Prison.
Their relatives in Canada are pleading with the Trudeau government to stand up for them and press Iran to free them so that they can return home. They join the lineup of families of political prisoners who are petitioning Ottawa in the hope that the new year will bring freedom for their loved ones.
“What has happened to Saeed and Mostafa is unfair and they should be released immediately and unconditionally,” says a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by Maryam Malekpour and Parastoo Azizi, the sister and daughter, respectively, of the two men.
“Every minute they remain behind bars is torture for us; we feel helpless and imprisoned ourselves,” they wrote.
Human rights advocates say that both men are collateral damage in the hard-line Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ war on the Internet and its growing popularity in Iran.
Malekpour, a non-political web developer who had immigrated to Victoria, was seized while visiting his fatally ill father in Tehran in 2008. Azizi, also on a family visit to care for an ailing father, was arrested in March, apparently because of his social media posts.
The Harper government’s decision to close its Tehran embassy and expel Iranian diplomats from Ottawa has made it more difficult for Canada to negotiate for their release. Trudeau said during his campaign that he would restore relations with Iran. Khaled Al-Qazzaz In Egypt, Canadian resident Khaled Al-Qazzaz is no longer behind bars — released without charge after 558 days in detention. But, although cleared of any wrongdoing, he is unaccountably forbidden to leave the country.
His Canadian wife, Sarah Attia, is in Egypt on a visitor’s visa that authorities belatedly renewed. With them are their four children, aged 2 to 8.
Al-Qazzaz was scooped up with thousands of suspected Muslim Brotherhood members after a coup against former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.
He suffered serious back and neck injuries that require urgent surgery.
The money Attia had saved for his medical treatment in Toronto has been confiscated without expla- nation and her bank account frozen. “We are living in limbo from day to day,” she said by phone from Cairo. “Things in Egypt are bad and we’re frightened of what may happen here. We are hoping the new Trudeau government will help us. All we want is to come home and lead a normal life.” Salim Alaradi Meanwhile, in the United Arab Emirates, Vancouver businessman Salim Alaradi, a Libyan-born Canadian citizen, has been held without charge since August 2014, tortured and refused legal representation and almost all contact with his family.
He was helping his brother Mohamed to run a home appliance business in the U.A.E. at the time of his arrest. The two were seized by security forces in a sweep of 10 men of Libyan origins who were jailed and interrogated in Abu Dhabi. Mohamed and others who were released tell of physical and psychological torture.
Although the Emirates has given no explanation for the arrest, it appears to be part of a crackdown on suspected members of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood during a covert regional war in which the U.A.E. is accused of airstrikes against Libyan factions. Raif Badawi So far, Canadian diplomacy has also had little traction in Saudi Arabia, where award-winning blogger Raif Badawi is imprisoned. He was recently named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s 2015 global thinkers “for putting the kingdom’s medieval justice system on trial.”
Badawi’s sentence of 1,000 lashes aroused international outrage. He was arrested in June 2012 for criticizing Saudi clerics on his website.
A recent unconfirmed Swiss news report said the flogging sentence would be halted, although he is still to serve10 years in prison and pay a fine of $266,000.
Badawi, a pro-democracy advocate, was granted an immigration selection certificate to join his wife and family in Quebec. Both Ottawa and Quebec have pushed for his release, but have been rebuffed.
In 2013, Canada made a $15-billion deal to sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, a notorious human-rights violator. But the massive trade accord appears to have brought little co-operation on the diplomatic front.