Saeed Malekpour’s sister says his family has not heard from him in 50 days and they fear that he may be executed at any time.
The International Campaign for Human Rights reported yesterday that Maryam Malekpour, the sister of the Iranian detainee currently on death row, said: “We have not been allowed to visit him in the past 50 days and we are completely in the dark. Our letters and requests for visitations have also been left unanswered.”
Maryam Malekpour goes on to say: “Saeed’s execution may be carried out any moment. I beseech the judicial authorities of my country to stop this sentence. We have written many letters that have remained unanswered but we are still hopeful that the authorities will halt the execution.”
Malekpour, a 36-year-old software designer and an engineering graduate from Iran’s top university, Sanaati Sharif, has been under arrest for more than three years. He is charged with “propaganda against the regime by designing obscene websites, insulting sanctities, insulting the president, links to anti-government groups and corruption on earth.” In a nationally televised report, he was shown admitting to these charges. He has since declared that those confessions were coerced and that he made them under duress.
He has written to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Larijani, indicating that he made the confessions “under fierce pressure, torture, threats and false promises of release on bail and amelioration of my situation.”
In his letter he lists “flogging, the threat of sexual abuse, interrogations leading to broken teeth, dislocation of haws and temporary paralysis in parts of my body” as examples of the torture he’s been subjected to.
Last month, several of his cellmates released a statement calling for a re-examination of his case, declaring that he has repeatedly reassured them that his confessions were made under torture, adding that his body still carries the marks of his ordeal.
