Supporters of Saeed Malekpour, a Canadian on death row in Iran, are calling for international assistance to save him from imminent execution.
Malekpour was arrested in October 2008, while he was in Iran visiting his ailing father. He was later convicted, under Sharia law, of insulting and desecrating Islam after someone used a photo-uploading program he created, to post pornography.
Human rights activist, Maryam Nayeb Yazdi, said his execution is imminent if the international community doesn't step in to help.
"International pressure is the only way to go to save people from death row in Iran. The Iranian regime does not follow any laws -- not their own laws or international laws -- so for us to expect the Iranian regime to act in a legal manner, I believe, is just ridiculous," Yazdi told CTV News Channel.
Malekpour is currently being held in Evin prison where he isn't allowed to speak to his lawyer and rarely receives permission to communicate with his family, according to Aubrey Harris from Amnesty International.
In the past, international pressure has worked to free prisoners from Iran, Harris told CTV News Channel on Sunday. Yet, in 2009 and 2010 alone authorities in Iran executed more than 600 people.
"Iran regularly conducts executions in public. You could find an execution being conducted in a downtown square," Harris said.
Malekpour's death sentence was stayed last year when Iran's Supreme Court ordered a judicial review into his case. Later, the sentence was reinstated. Experts say that convictions under Sharia law are rarely changed.
Still, there is no reason to believe that Malekpour knew his site was being used to upload pornographic photos, said Harris.
"We believe this conviction was based on tortured evidence," he said. "His confessions that were tortured out of him were used on television in Iran to keep the public in fear, keep them from using the Internet, to keep them from using social media."
The Iranian regime is using Malekpour's case and others like it to strike fear into civil society, Yazdi said. There is a parliamentary election coming up on March 2, 2012 and many people are using the Internet to call for boycotts of that election.
"The Iranian regime really wants to crack down on the global Internet… and to do that they need to inflict the maximum amount of fear onto civil society. So to kill Saeed or someone like Saeed they can inflict that fear," she said.
Malekpour's case has received attention from many in the International community. Statements in support of him have been released by the European Union, British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the U.S. State Department and foreign ministries of Norway and Italy.
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird has also released statements in support of Malekpour. And the Canadian House of Commons recently voted to hold Iran accountable to any damage done to Malekpour.
Yazdi said the next step in Malekpour's case would be for the United Nations to release an urgent appeal for his release.
