Mother of Saeed Malekpour Requests Prosecutor to Pardon Son After Enduring 10 Years in Prison
The mother of Saeed Malekpour, a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment, has written to the Tehran prosecutor requesting her son’s release after 10 years in prison. Akram Esmaeilzadeh asked Abbas Jafari Dolatabad in her letter to “pardon” her son “on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the revolution” and release him after 10 years of imprisonment without even a single day of furlough.
At the beginning of her letter to the Tehran prosecutor, a copy of which has been provided to the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Saeed Malekpour’s mother wrote: “I am the mother of Saeed Malekpour. Saeed has no father and apparently I am both his father and mother, but he has been separated from his mother’s embrace for over ten years and is now in the embrace of prison and walls. Whatever crime he may have committed, ten years—which you well know he has spent in solitary confinement or closed prisons—is enough for him.”
Akram Esmaeilzadeh, noting that her son has not received even a single day of furlough during his 10 years of imprisonment despite prison regulations, continued in her letter: “Consider a mother in declining years who needs her son’s help. After all these years when every moment has felt like a year to us, he has not even received furlough. I am certain that Islamic mercy is nothing but this, and as a mother I look to the Islamic mercy of the system and you, and I hope that given that all relevant authorities, from the prison to the case expert, confirm his good character and conduct, you who claim to be the prosecutor and defender of people’s rights will give him a taste of Islamic mercy and given that the esteemed head of the judiciary has promised extensive and unprecedented pardons, announce your agreement with his pardon in the pardon and forgiveness committee so that on the 40th anniversary of the revolution he will be included in the pardon list.”
At the end of her letter, Saeed Malekpour’s mother asked the Tehran prosecutor, not in his official capacity but as a fellow citizen, to release her son: “I request furlough and pardon for my son after ten years from you. Please, in whatever way you deem appropriate, prepare the arrangements so that we will always be your well-wishers.”
The letter has been published by domestic media outlets such as the Edalat News website. Mr. Malekpour suffers from multiple diseases including heart disease, kidney stones, prostate problems, and knee arthritis. In September 2018, following a heart attack, he was transferred from prison to Taleghani Hospital for four days. This prisoner’s sister said in a conversation with the Campaign in September 2018 that unfortunately no measures have been taken to treat his other illnesses.
Saeed Malekpour, 42, is a graduate of Sharif University of Technology and a cyber activist with Canadian residency. He traveled from Canada to Iran in 2008 to visit his family when he was arrested by security forces. Saeed Malekpour was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court in September 2010 on charges of insulting sacred values, which was claimed to be due to managing networks of pornographic websites. This sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on February 1, 2012, and was sent to the enforcement division. However, in September 2013, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with one degree of reduction. Saeed Malekpour did not accept the charges against him in court.
In the months following his arrest, Saeed Malekpour made a televised confession broadcast on Iran’s state television in which he claimed to have established websites named Avizo, Iran Sex, and Xpershia in Canada with the support of an American company. However, he later recanted his confession in the primary court and stated that he was forced to make such a confession under pressure and torture.
Mr. Malekpour published a shocking letter in March 2009 describing what he had endured and announced: “When they asked me to speak in front of the camera about purchasing software from England and placing it on my website and say that if people visit this site, this software would be installed on their computer without their knowledge, and then control of the web cam of their computer, even when the computer is off, would fall into my hands and in this way I would film from people’s bedrooms through the internet. Although I told the interrogators that such a thing is not technically possible, they replied that I should not concern myself with such matters.”
Source: Human Rights in Iran
