Thursday 09 June 2011

Activist concerned for Canadian journalist in Iran

A Canadian human rights activist is concerned over Iran’s “deeply flawed” legal process after a renowned Canadian-Iranian journalist lost his appeal Wednesday against a 19-year prison term in that country.

“I don’t know if it’s been a fair process,” said Gloria Nafziger of Amnesty International Canada.

“I think the biggest ongoing problem is access to fair trial in Iran, adequate opportunities to represent yourself and present defence and to have access to a lawyer.”

Hossein Derakhshan, a 35-year-old known as the “blogfather” of the Iranian blogging movement, has been imprisoned in Iran since 2008 and was convicted last year of “aiding enemy states and propaganda against the Islamic system.”

He was best known for travelling to Israel in 2006, using his Canadian passport to circumvent Iran’s ban on such visits, because he hoped to help change the views that Israelis and Iranians have of each other’s countries.

His partner, Sandrine Murcia, told French media Wednesday that Derakhshan’s family is “shattered” and that it’s the biggest sentence ever imposed on an Iranian journalist.

“There’s no reason for Hossein to be in prison,” Murcia said. “This sentence is simply unacceptable.”

The appeal loss is “very distressing,” Nafziger said, adding that the judicial process there is “deeply flawed.” But she said the system worked at least for another Canadian journalist, Saeed Malekpour, who dodged the death penalty Wednesday.

Malekpour, a permanent resident of Canada, had been convicted of operating a porn site and was held by Iranians for the past two years. The country’s supreme court quashed his death sentence after hearing arguments from his lawyers.

“It’s a day of good news and bad news,” Nafziger said.

Murcia said she thought Derakhshan’s lengthy sentence was intended as a message from Iran’s Islamic regime to the young cyber-activists battling to keep the spirit of the “green revolution” against the regime alive online.

Source: Canada




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