
Please support Saeed - Web Dev facing death sentence in Iran - xer0x
My friend Saeed disappeared 2 years ago while he visited Iran. He is now facing false charges with deadly consequences. The court and government responsible for making this decision are actively hostile towards the internet. I know our HN community values freedom and technology, and if you can share the links below with your friends, or do anything to support Saeed.<p>"While working as developer in Canada, Saeed designed a program that would allow his clients to upload pictures, and as is a common courtesy in programming, included his name and info in the file.
This program, Saeed’s wife – Dr. Fatimeh Eftekhari – explains, was used in an adult content website WITHOUT Saeed’s knowledge or approval. “The only recognizable name in the program was Saeed’s,” she continued, “which led to his arrest” and to the accusations claiming that Saeed was responsible for the development and administration of the website." from http://united4iran.org/2010/10/the-case-of-saeed-malekpour-web-developer-jailed-since-2008/<p>Please send letters of support for Saeed: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6160/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4449<p>Thank-you
======
lukevdp
Stories like this blow my mind and make me very thankful to live in a free
country.

I don't care what anybody says about being ethnocentric and relativistic
morals and "it's their country, their rules". This country has absurd rules
and it's just wrong.

Letters aren't going to do anything, in countries like Iran they arrest their
own citizens for speaking out, I can't see non citizens having any effect at
all.

~~~
united4iran
I am so impressed by how far this story has traveled in such a short amount of
time. I'm part of the org that worked with Saeed's wife to initiate this
campaign. She is a brilliant woman. I wanted to quickly address letters. They
DO work. We have, in the last few months, received emails from foreign
ministers and their representatives promising that they will address it with
Iran's officials as they visit the countries, that they will continue to pass
ont he information, and even releasing statements of condemnation. With Iran,
it will ALWAYS remain a PR game, and the end goal is to 1) highlight the cases
and 2) get the world community to decry them. Name and shame, assign blame,
embarrass Iran. That is their biggest fear, truly.

Thanks to all! Mana United4Iran.org

------
adrianwaj
Someone build a site about how great is Sharia, Iran and its Ayotollah. Then
use the photo script that he wrote, and make it clear how his script was used.
Then tweet it to @ahmadinejad and we'll all retweet it.

edit: can turn it into an <http://act.ly/> petition too, the site could just
be image uploads of Acqua Dinner jackets

~~~
InclinedPlane
That's the ticket, kowtow to brutal dictatorships to win their favor. That
always works.

~~~
adrianwaj
Hacking the dictatorship, buddy.

------
AlexMuir
Here's something we actually could do (not that any of us will do it. Beyond
upvoting and a bit of commenting on freedom/politics, no one is going to lift
a finger, me included). Find the name of someone who holds power on this
decision (we'd need somebody to help us with this). Then Google bomb their
name (in English/Arabic/Farsi) to the top of Google with a site about the case
and leave an open end for them to decide - did they condemn a man to death, or
show clemency and release him?

~~~
techiferous
You're assuming that said person frequents the Internet.

~~~
AlexMuir
Or that members of his (no doubt large, and Western educated) family do. Or
that the media cover it. But it's academic because I'm not doing it, and nor
are you.

------
bobds
This is the first I hear about this story, words escape me really. I can't
imagine where Saeed finds the strength to keep going after two years of
torture.

Can we do something more meaningful/effective than sending e-letters?

~~~
jrockway
_Can we do something more meaningful/effective than sending e-letters?_

Overthrow the government?

~~~
points
I'm not sure that has worked out so well in the past. Invading places to bring
them a particular definition of freedom is a bad idea.

Definitely if the citizens themselves want to take action, then it's up to
them to do so.

When you live somewhere, you play by the rules of that country... and if it's
a country that doesn't have good rules, you can emigrate.

~~~
tomjen3
>When you live somewhere, you play by the rules of that country

>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Notice that it doesn't say all Americans are created equal or free, but all
people. Iran has no right to trample on inalienable rights.

~~~
points
Did you just try to assert that the United States Declaration of independence
should apply to all of humanity?

Mind. Blown.

~~~
tomjen3
Yes, or at least the principles on which it was based.

And I am not an America, so this is not a nationalism issue.

~~~
points
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." is such a wooly useless
statement though.

You could argue that based on the above, the US shouldn't have a minimum age
limit for alcohol since it clearly infringes on teenagers (heck even college
kids) pursuit of happiness.

I'm not arguing that it's correct that they have strict laws about
pornography, nor would I argue that it's incorrect that the US has strict laws
on alcohol. It's up to each country where to set its own laws.

~~~
xenophanes
The US _shouldn't_ have a minimum age limit on alcohol. It's a victimless
crime law. Ugh.

~~~
points
I can't quite tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

~~~
xenophanes
I'm not being sarcastic. I'm a libertarian (i.e. classical liberal). I think
people should have freedom to do things that don't hurt others.

It's only legitimate to stop people drinking when there's some danger
involved, e.g. drinking _with_ driving. One can argue for other cases like
drinking heavily _with_ a "mean drunk" personality type, or drinking heavily
without the experience/knowledge to be safe in that situation. Drinking with
being aged 20 isn't inherently dangerous. And it's a bad (both inaccurate and
ageist) proxy for the other things that actually matter.

------
Deestan
Have you tried contacting Amnesty International? This case sounds right up
their alley, so they should at least be able to give helpful advice.

~~~
united4iran
Yes - we in fact work with Amnesty to do most of this. They don't do as much
online advocacy as much as encouraging people to write actual letters -- bc of
the short amount of time left before Saeed's trial, we decided to go the route
of e-letters. Amnesty has an AMAZING track record though, recently spoke with
one of their Iran team and she noted that since AI's advent, using these types
of campaigns have seen 44,000 prisoners released.

------
jrockway
I don't think there's much that letter writing is going to solve. It seems
he's an Iranian citizen from Iran that is subject to Iran's criminal justice
system. Yeah, Iran has a poor human rights record, but writing an email is not
going to fix that problem.

~~~
pyre
I could be mistaking the tone of your post, but it seems rather defeatist.
Sure email, might not do a lot, but acceptance of the situation usually
doesn't engender the fast-track to change.

~~~
michael_dorfman
On the other hand, taking an easy but useless action doesn't engender the
fast-track to change, either-- it only gives a sense of complacency and self-
satisfaction.

------
united4iran
I noted this below as a comment, but really wanted all to see it in case it
gets skipped o'er. Do letters work? Yes.

U4I has, in the last few months, received emails from foreign ministers and
their representatives promising that they will address it with Iran's
officials as they visit the countries, that they will continue to pass on the
information, and even releasing statements of condemnation.

With Iran, it will ALWAYS remain a PR game, and the end goal is to 1)
highlight the cases and 2) get the world community to decry them. Name and
shame, assign blame, embarrass Iran. That is their biggest fear, truly.

An example is below of how effective letter writing CAN be.

\--

"The Dutch minister of Foreign Affairs Verhagen has received a number of
emails highlighting the case of the 7 Baha'i Leaders, generated through your
website. I would like to inform you minister Verhagen has publicly expressed
his concern about their fate:
[http://www.minbuza.nl/en/News/Newsflashes/2010/08/Netherland...](http://www.minbuza.nl/en/News/Newsflashes/2010/08/Netherlands_concerned)
_about_fate_of_Iranian_Baha%E2%80%99i_leaders

Best regards, Bart Rijs Spokersperson minister of Foreign Affairs The Hague
The Netherlands

\---

So does it work? Yes. Slowly sometimes, but yes. Knowing you're being watched
DOES indeed change your behavior. Just ask Roxana Saberi :) Thanks to all,
this is quite the community!

~~~
united4iran
The link didn't paste correctly, here it is: <http://bit.ly/cxv7Gl>

------
sharpn
Sorry to hear that. I've contacted Amnesty's International Secretariat to see
if they can help.

------
known
Have you tried <http://www.fairtrials.net/need_help/>

------
gdee
Anybody from Spain knows of a better address to send letters to the new
Spanish "Minister of External Affairs and Cooperation", Trinidad Jiménez, than
informae@mae.es (which itself is rather well hidden on the ministry's website)
?

~~~
united4iran
Try Beatriz Lorenzo, she's an official at Spain's Human Rights office:
beatriz.lorenzo@maec.es

------
freesaeednow
"Free Saeed" plastered all over Canadian government websites might get their
attention, especially if followed by mailbombs.

------
rythie
> Trial scheduled for October 26, 2010

------
ajx
welcome to iran

------
semuelf
Can we nominate him to Darwin award?

~~~
araneae
For visiting his dying father in Iran? For putting his name in the comments of
a script he wrote?

