35 ms·

Death sentence for Iranian web programmer

369 points by waitwhat 15y ago

relix 15y ago
He was living in Canada for several years and apparently made some free open source software that was subsequently used in a porn site (without his further involvement or knowledge), as is oft the case and the reason FOSS exists. He then was arrested on a visit to Iran. Disregarding the ridiculousness of this specific case, it sets a dangerous precedent: anyone who has written open source code that is used by sites, and possible porn sites, could be just as guilty as this guy according to Iranian law. I think I'll skip Iran on my next vacation for now.
- freerobby 15y ago
  Minor clarification: it said he was a Canadian resident, not a citizen.
  - relix 15y ago
    Yes I updated my post, you are correct.
- zalew 15y ago
  > I think I'll skip Iran on my next vacation for now. They don't give a crap what an average tourist does in his homeland. Repressions are addressed toward their own citizens and foreign journalists/activists because they are a threat to the regime.
  - corin_ 15y ago
    You think they looked at someone who coded a piece of free software for image uploads, that was used by porn sites, and thought "he's a threat to our regime"?
    - zalew 15y ago
      Any citizen of an opressive country who doesn't support the govt is looked at as a threat, that's how regimes treat their citizens. The accusations are a tool, not a reason.
      - eternalban 15y ago
        And the more randomly the tool is applied the more effective it is in terrorizing people. IRI is basically broadcasting to Iranian expat community that: don't even think about technically contributing to software that can be used to topple us.
    - headbiznatch 15y ago
      Smash a nose, freak everybody out, nobody says shit after that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtkM2SPaSJ8&feature=youtu.be&t=50s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtkM2SPaSJ8&feature=youtu...
  - shadowfiend 15y ago
    But then again, not visiting a country is the tourism equivalent of a boycott. Thus why there are travel restrictions between the US and Cuba. So perhaps it isn't a “they could arrest me” (though it's not like Iran has never arrested foreign citizens and accused them of espionage), but simply an “I don't want to show any form of support for a regime like that”. Naturally, there are counterarguments, like how visitors provide a view into the outside world, for example.
    - zalew 15y ago
      I frequent travel discussion boards, so I am familiar with this point of view, it's a common topic (should I travel to [insert your favorite opressive country]). However, I'm on the side which doesn't share this way of thinking. Contrary to what popular media makes us think, countries are made of citizens, not politicians. Citizens who are by general usually nice people and happy that you came to share your interest in their culture, common life, and leave some bucks in their stores/restaurants, not only seeing them through foreign interest of their governments. Iranian people have an awesome opinion of their friendliness to travellers, btw.
      - Jun8 15y ago
        "Contrary to what popular media makes us think..." What part of this news (or the many others about stonings, etc.) do you think is media manipulation? If you don't believe US media, get your facts directly from Iranians, there are ample examples of books and films (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stoning_of_Soraya_M. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stoning_of_Soraya_M., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Lolita_in_Tehran http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Lolita_in_Tehran, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_%28comics%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_%28comics%29 are popular examples) that can be used for this purpose. I've never subscribed to the "citizens are actually good, it's the governments who are evil" argument, it just shifts the blame, e.g. "the Nazis did it" by reification: governments are made of people and they, more or less, are populistic, following the majority's wishes. There are many parts of the society in Iran that back the current regime, don't think that everybody's against it. So, my reply to the grandparent comment would be: read more about the people and regime and if you are convinced, then, yes, do not visit Iran, boycott them by withholding your money.
  - jnevelson 15y ago
    Given the utter insanity of what happened with this guy, I don't think anyone is in a position to judge what Iran gives a crap about or not.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- sodoer 15y ago
  Regarding precedent, your statement is absolutely true and happening now. Many brilliant iranian (even foreign born) technologists do not participate in open or entrepreneurial endeavors bc of their ties back home and fear of repercussions on self or family. This case shows exactly how far and what the regime is capable of.
- mseebach 15y ago
  > it sets a dangerous precedent Precedent is irrelevant because Iran is not under the rule of law. Iran can imprison or kill you if that's what they feel like. The exact reason (if they give one) is just a fig leaf, and your confession is likely to be the result of torture. Legal logic does not apply.
  - ypcx 15y ago
    "can imprison or kill you if that's what they feel like" Reminds me also of a certain north american country. Oh, never mind.
    - gnosis 15y ago
      Exactly. The US can just brand you a terrorist and assassinate you if it feels like it -- even if you're an American citizen -- no need to even extract a false confession under torture or have a sham trial (though there are plenty of those in the US as well). They could just kill you outright. Iran does not have a monopoly on mockeries of justice.
      - mvzink 15y ago
        > Iran does not have a monopoly on mockeries of justice. You're quite right. From these cases, the only real differences would seem to be 1) basis: terrorism vs. insulting Islam and 2) extremity: different bars for capital punishment.
    - mseebach 15y ago
      Yes, those are almost slightly related. Facepalm. Yes, the erosions in US justice over the past decade and change are rightly cause for great concern, but they are orders of magnitude from the total absence of the rule of law in Iran.
- tlb 15y ago
  There's certainly more to the story. He lived there as a citizen for many years and probably had enemies. Iran doesn't seem to be working their way through github. Remember, prosecutions start with who they want to get, and then try to find some laws they broke. So often the stated charge is something incidental like tax evasion.
AUmrysh 15y ago
I think the real thing to take from this story is never travel to Iran (until the people of that nation replace their totalitarian government with something respectable).
- gcp 15y ago
  Avoiding Iran isn't a problem, but there are several countries with similarly non-democratic governments and strictly islamic environments. I've done FOSS consulting in the Arab Emirates. That suddenly looks riskier now.
  - corin_ 15y ago
    Join me in refusing to do any work that involves traveling to the UAE - as a gay man I've never had to worry about what they'll think of any work I do..
    - pavel_lishin 15y ago
      As someone who has friends who smoke marijuana - and therefore, as someone who might have stepped on miniscule amounts thereof and trapped particles in my shoes - I ain't going over there, either.
  - tomjen3 15y ago
    That depends -- if had had been a Citizen of Canada, rather than a mere resident -- Canada would have been up in arms.
    - gcp 15y ago
      The government of those countries sometimes cares about that, but they also feel the need to set an example to appease the strict islamic side every now and then. Your government being up in arms about you may not prevent a bad outcome.
    - pooriaazimi 15y ago
      ...like those poor American hikers US government freed?!
robterrell 15y ago
That's deplorable. So basically, anyone who has code on GitHub that a pornographer (or other Islam-insulter) could use should never visit Iran. Seems like a clear case of a coerced confession -- he confessed to something that isn't even possible. Why isn't the Canadian government going bananas for him? They've got their own damn oil, right?
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  > Seems like a clear case of a coerced confession -- he confessed to something that isn't even possible. As I understand it, that's kind of the way things work in Iran. (Note that as a privileged white male, my knowledge of this comes from various podcasts, so my opinion written on a post-it is worth a post-it.)
- gdilla 15y ago
  Because he's not a citizen, just a resident. Iran probably feels like no other country can have a say in this.
shadowfiend 15y ago
It's always said that one of the huge advantages of programming compared to other disciplines is the extremely low barrier of entry and the extremely low cost of taking a risk. You can develop something and all it costs you is time, so scrapping it is far easier than in any physical design situation. I don't think it's possible to discount how critical to this point of view our freedoms are. When you have a certain faith in the justice system (one generally corroborated by experience) and in the law, you have one less thing to worry about. We innovate because we not only don't fear wasting $N in materials in addition to our time, we also don't fear being dragged off to prison. Indeed, even if we did fear being dragged off to prison, I can't think of any situation where you could unintentionally get the death sentence for programming. Programming! Yes, SOPA and PIPA are bad, and yes, we should oppose them. But sometimes it's good to take a step back and look at what “bad” really looks like. And take a minute to think “Wow. We are fighting such minor battles in comparison.” Just a minute. Then it's time to get back in the fight. Because the minor losses slowly, imperceptibly, take you to the major battles.
- CWuestefeld 15y ago
  We innovate because we not only don't fear wasting $N in materials in addition to our time, we also don't fear being dragged off to prison. That's generally true, but not in all cases. Because I have Crohn's Disease, I've toyed with the idea of creating an app that would let a patient track their symptoms and diet, etc., to figure out what are the factors that cause a flare-up for them; and later upload the history to their doctor. But knowing (a) the regulations in the USA surrounding medical devices (does this count as one? who knows without a lawyer) and (b) the potential for liability for even the stupidest things, I've decided that the potential danger for me is nowhere near worth it.
  - shadowfiend 15y ago
    Arguably that makes my statement true :) You didn't innovate precisely because you did fear those things. That said, you're right that we're not 100% free in this sense, even as software developers. We are just more free in this sense than many other hobbies/interests/occupations.
viraptor 15y ago
> "Canada condemns Iran’s reported decision to execute Mr. Malekpour" Is that really all Canada and other countries can do? Send a very, very angry letter using politically correct wording?
- sp332 15y ago
  He's a resident, not a citizen of Canada. They don't have any explicit obligation to this guy.
  - viraptor 15y ago
    Ok, I actually thought he was not Iranian either, but that makes more sense now...
- nekojima 15y ago
  Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian dual citizen, was severely abused and murdered in an Iranian prison in 2003. There was little the Canadian government could do but to send a very angry letter. This issue still highly affects Iranian-Canadian diplomatic relations. For some of the details on the abuse she faced in prison: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahra_Kazemi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahra_Kazemi
- kstenerud 15y ago
  Pretty much. When it comes to international relations one must always tread carefully. A scene from Yes, Prime Minister might help illustrate the point. Jim Hacker (the Prime Minister) is talking to Sir Humphrey Appleby (Cabinet Secretary) about a nurse caught with a bottle of whiskey in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Kumran, and sentenced to 40 lashes. Jim: This is very worrying. There's a lot of public sympathy. Humphrey: I'm sure the Foreign Secretary will advise you. Jim: He advises me to do nothing. Humphrey: I'm sure that's good advice. Jim: Humphrey, we must do something. Humphrey: The Kumranis are good friends of Britain. They placed a huge defense contract with us, they tell us about the Soviets in Iraq, they even sabotage OPEC agreements for us. We can't afford to upset them. Jim: I know, but a British national is facing a barbaric punishment for a trivial offense. The Foreign Office is there to protect British nationals. Humphrey: To protect British interests. Jim: It's not in her interest to be flogged. Humphrey: It's not in ours to prevent it. Jim: This could hurt the government very badly. Humphrey: Well, I understand that tomorrow the Foreign Secretary will deliver a strong note of protest. Jim: Why can't he do it now? Humphrey: We haven't got their agreement yet! We're seeing the ambassador privately now. Once they approve the wording, we hand it over. Then we'll have done all we can. Jim: Very heartless. Humphrey: It's safer to be heartless than mindless. History is the triumph of the heartless over the mindless.
its_so_on 15y ago
what's an Iranian engineer to do. If you develop porn software, your government kills you. But if you work in nuclear engineering for your government, Israel kills you. I think the best policy would be for Israel to have a secret extraction program for Iranian engineers who are ideologically motivated and want to get into Internet porn engineering. Win-win-win-win (the last one is me.)
- rbanffy 15y ago
  > Israel to have a secret extraction program for Iranian engineers That's one very interesting idea. Offering citizenship and facilitating immigration will slowly brain-drain Iran which will, eventually, cause economic collapse a couple decades from now. The only downside is that Iran's political environment already shows strong signs of brain drainage.
  - skeptical 15y ago
    They have been doing that for many years. Not in large scale though, only for the crop of the cream.
- molmalo 15y ago
  There are a couple of problems with this: - Iran sending "moles" to spy Israel or other countries. - They would become terrorist targets (for being traitors to the regime). - Some of them, even when they are against the government, are also against Israel. Religion is too much strong there. And anyway, I think that they can ask for political asylum for their own, while visiting other countries (but I dont know if they are free to travel).
- TheSOB88 15y ago
  What is this, a joke?
  - its_so_on 15y ago
    yes!!
zobzu 15y ago
Well, as usual, fuck religion
- cobrausn 15y ago
  This has little to do with religion and more to do with power. There are secular regimes that have done equivalent (or worse).
- viraptor 15y ago
  Is it the religion itself though, or is it about tying the law execution and religion?
  - guard-of-terra 15y ago
    It's easy to check, remove religion and see if it helps or not. It's of no use anyway. In most recent cases where one side was religious and other one wasn't, religious ones were usually bad guys. Stance on abortions, ID, this abomination. I can't remember them ever backing something good against secular people trying to do something bad.
    - greyboy 15y ago
      In the spirit of fairness - really? Communist Germany, USSR, Communist China/Mao, North Korea, Mussolini's Italy, etc.? All of those were or are "religious" governments?
      - guard-of-terra 15y ago
        I don't remember catholic church standing loudly against Mussolini or Hitler, neither russian orthodox church standing against Stalin. They were too busy fearing for their lives.
rbanffy 15y ago
Does anyone have data on how he was arrested? Was there some investigation of Iranian names in porn web sites or was he arrested because he was a Canadian resident visiting Iran and the porn accusations were pinned on him after arrest? The article says authorities spent a year assembling a case before any accusations were made. Is this a risk any Iranian citizen returning from the West faces? To be arrested and have charges fabricated after the arrest? Are there any other cases of this?
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
cies 15y ago
In reply to all the Iran hostility... Iran is not such a bad country. I can know because I've been traveling it for 5 weeks. It's a weird place, with a govt that is not much supported by the educated-youth. But not all that bad as the media try to make us believe. US has not closed Guatanamo, where they do their own share of trial-less, unfair-trail and/or unreasonable-trial sentence execution (including death penalty). Should we all now boycott the US? "Porn" is quite clearly just the flag under which this guy is punished for leaving (deserting) his country. Prisoners in Guatanamo similarly have an "official reason" for being there. Believe me, here in the Netherlands I know some folks with strong sentiments agains the US, and I tell them the same: "The US is not such a bad country". So maybe it is just me :)
- jmduke 15y ago
  Being a "bad country" is not relative. Denial of due process is an abomination of human rights, regardless of the number of countries committing it.
- eternalban 15y ago
  "Islamic Republic" of Iran is =/= Iran. As an American of Iranian descent I implore you to make note of this critically important difference. Thank you.
- paulhauggis 15y ago
  "Iran is not such a bad country. I can know because I've been traveling it for 5 weeks. It's a weird place, with a govt that is not much supported by the educated-youth. But not all that bad as the media try to make us believe." I'm sorry, but if the government of a country is going execute someone for "violating the sanctity of Islam", they are a bad country. By accepting this behavior, you are just allowing it to continue. I don't accept it and I will always be against a country that treats its citizens this way. More people need to stand up to this bullshit. "Believe me, here in the Netherlands I know some folks with strong sentiments agains the US, and I tell them the same: "The US is not such a bad country". So maybe it is just me :)" The US has some problems, but it's still better than 99% of the world in terms of freedom. Unlike the US, Most of the world has state-controlled media and an Internet Firewall. Hopefully, it never happens here in the US.
zeroboy 15y ago
Iran's death by stoning is particularly brutal, as you can see by this infographic (warning: if you are easily upset, don't read this): http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/2010/11/20/graphic-anatomy-of-a-stoning http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.natio...
_THE_PLAGUE 15y ago
I say the hackers of the world should hold a "burn a koran" day in protest. I am so sick of Islam pissing on freedom of expression. We need to fight back.
jk5sj7 15y ago
Is there a chance he was a spy? I ask because there are other Iranians who have been arrested (and sentenced to death) for espionage when visiting Iran from overseas.
- Jach 15y ago
  Are you one of the speculated pro-Iran bots sent to communities like ours who try to subvert public opinion on that backwards country?
  - pavel_lishin 15y ago
    Surely a user created only three hours ago, with only one comment and a random username wouldn't have nefarious purposes! Better double-check. Offer him some bacon.
rglover 15y ago
So wait a minute, the Canadian government is doing something about this, right? “Canada condemns Iran’s reported decision to execute Mr. Malekpour. Sadly, his case is far from the only example of Iran’s utter disregard for human life. The regime in Tehran frequently ignores principles like due process for its citizens domestically, and international human rights obligations generally.” From that I gather that this is being looked at as "out of our hands" by the Canadian government. Is that right? I know that relations with Iran are murky for many nations, but this is kind of ridiculous.
- bostonpete 15y ago
  What do you think Canada ought to be doing? Iran is executing an Iranian citizen for political reasons.
- nodemaker 15y ago
  I think you misread it as "Canadian Citizen" instead of "Canadian Resident".
  - rglover 15y ago
    You would be correct.
  - Volpe 15y ago
    Sad, that we've made country distinctions such that one word can mean the difference between caring about whether this man lives or dies and/or whether my country should do something about it.
    - rglover 15y ago
      Agreed. Despite my misunderstanding, my original statement stands: this guy obviously did nothing wrong and someone should be working to get him out of Iran and back to Canada.
justindocanto 15y ago
Wow. Poor guy. You try to make something useful, it gets into the hands of somebody that a country like IRAN hates... and you're to be killed. Never would have guessed this stuff happened/was possible when i was younger. blows me away.
dazbradbury 15y ago
Iran's recent history is fraught with human rights violations. Each time stories like this are raised (on an almost daily basis), we need to support those who are actively campaigning to improve situations for Iranians, and do our part by informing our leaders of these concerns. People can learn more about Iran's denial of education and send messages to UN members here: http://can-you-solve-this.org/ http://can-you-solve-this.org/ Or help support campaigns such as "The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran": http://www.iranhumanrights.org/ http://www.iranhumanrights.org/ If anyone has any other information on campaigns/activists tackling human rights violations, I would love to hear about them.
guard-of-terra 15y ago
I find that the article lacks the details about the software in question. In the age of hypertext no links are to be found. The problem with it is we can't for sure show how ridiculous the accusations are without having access to that information. Or is it unknown?
- JL2010 15y ago
  Agreed, does anyone have more specifics on what exactly he developed?
nazar 15y ago
This is just a screwed up verson of Islam they are having in Iran. If thats what Islam stands for, I don't want to be a muslim anymore. I am sick of these stupid gready people representing any religion( in this case Islam) from wrong perspective. There is no such a thing as killing a person if he/she disgraced Islam.
- patrickaljord 15y ago
  > There is no such a thing as killing a person if he/she disgraced Islam. https://www.google.com/#q=prophet%20ordered%20killing%20for%20insulting%20islam https://www.google.com/#q=prophet%20ordered%20killing%20for%...
- azth 15y ago
  Do you happen to speak Arabic by any chance? :)
  - nazar 15y ago
    No, tho I am a muslim, I am not from arabic origin, so I just know some phrases and words concerning Islam
  - mahmud 15y ago
    What does that have to do with anything? Most Iranians DON'T speak Arabic. The ones who do are in the tiny Ahwaz region and many of them refuse to call themselves Iranis.
caycep 15y ago
can he be extradited to canada to avoid this sentence?
dev_Gabriel 15y ago
Until when people are going to die in the name of religion?
Stormbringer 15y ago
Stupid question time: Why isn't the title "Death sentence for Canadian web programmer"? My naive reading of the article indicates that the man in question is a canadian citizen who was arrested when he visited Iran.
ianshward 15y ago
More than on any other thread I've read on Hacker News, I'm driven to say on this in particular: what can we do? Iran's government site runs IIS. Pressure Microsoft to revoke their license (if it's even legit). I'm ready for war. I donated to TOR (I'll never travel to Iran) a couple years ago around the Iranian elections. This scumbag government must tumble.
sliverstorm 15y ago
What I want to know- of what country is this man a citizen? It is no less awful of Iran if he is an Iranian citizen, but it might help explain Canada's seemingly lax reaction. (The article says he was a resident of Canada. Residency doesn't usually mean citizenship, right?)

369 points by waitwhat 15y ago

relix 15y ago

He was living in Canada for several years and apparently made some free open source software that was subsequently used in a porn site (without his further involvement or knowledge), as is oft the case and the reason FOSS exists. He then was arrested on a visit to Iran. Disregarding the ridiculousness of this specific case, it sets a dangerous precedent: anyone who has written open source code that is used by sites, and possible porn sites, could be just as guilty as this guy according to Iranian law. I think I'll skip Iran on my next vacation for now.

freerobby 15y ago
Minor clarification: it said he was a Canadian resident, not a citizen.
- relix 15y ago
  Yes I updated my post, you are correct.
zalew 15y ago
> I think I'll skip Iran on my next vacation for now. They don't give a crap what an average tourist does in his homeland. Repressions are addressed toward their own citizens and foreign journalists/activists because they are a threat to the regime.
- corin_ 15y ago
  You think they looked at someone who coded a piece of free software for image uploads, that was used by porn sites, and thought "he's a threat to our regime"?
  - zalew 15y ago
    Any citizen of an opressive country who doesn't support the govt is looked at as a threat, that's how regimes treat their citizens. The accusations are a tool, not a reason.
    - eternalban 15y ago
      And the more randomly the tool is applied the more effective it is in terrorizing people. IRI is basically broadcasting to Iranian expat community that: don't even think about technically contributing to software that can be used to topple us.
  - headbiznatch 15y ago
    Smash a nose, freak everybody out, nobody says shit after that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtkM2SPaSJ8&feature=youtu.be&t=50s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtkM2SPaSJ8&feature=youtu...
- shadowfiend 15y ago
  But then again, not visiting a country is the tourism equivalent of a boycott. Thus why there are travel restrictions between the US and Cuba. So perhaps it isn't a “they could arrest me” (though it's not like Iran has never arrested foreign citizens and accused them of espionage), but simply an “I don't want to show any form of support for a regime like that”. Naturally, there are counterarguments, like how visitors provide a view into the outside world, for example.
  - zalew 15y ago
    I frequent travel discussion boards, so I am familiar with this point of view, it's a common topic (should I travel to [insert your favorite opressive country]). However, I'm on the side which doesn't share this way of thinking. Contrary to what popular media makes us think, countries are made of citizens, not politicians. Citizens who are by general usually nice people and happy that you came to share your interest in their culture, common life, and leave some bucks in their stores/restaurants, not only seeing them through foreign interest of their governments. Iranian people have an awesome opinion of their friendliness to travellers, btw.
    - Jun8 15y ago
      "Contrary to what popular media makes us think..." What part of this news (or the many others about stonings, etc.) do you think is media manipulation? If you don't believe US media, get your facts directly from Iranians, there are ample examples of books and films (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stoning_of_Soraya_M. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stoning_of_Soraya_M., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Lolita_in_Tehran http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Lolita_in_Tehran, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_%28comics%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_%28comics%29 are popular examples) that can be used for this purpose. I've never subscribed to the "citizens are actually good, it's the governments who are evil" argument, it just shifts the blame, e.g. "the Nazis did it" by reification: governments are made of people and they, more or less, are populistic, following the majority's wishes. There are many parts of the society in Iran that back the current regime, don't think that everybody's against it. So, my reply to the grandparent comment would be: read more about the people and regime and if you are convinced, then, yes, do not visit Iran, boycott them by withholding your money.
- jnevelson 15y ago
  Given the utter insanity of what happened with this guy, I don't think anyone is in a position to judge what Iran gives a crap about or not.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
sodoer 15y ago
Regarding precedent, your statement is absolutely true and happening now. Many brilliant iranian (even foreign born) technologists do not participate in open or entrepreneurial endeavors bc of their ties back home and fear of repercussions on self or family. This case shows exactly how far and what the regime is capable of.
mseebach 15y ago
> it sets a dangerous precedent Precedent is irrelevant because Iran is not under the rule of law. Iran can imprison or kill you if that's what they feel like. The exact reason (if they give one) is just a fig leaf, and your confession is likely to be the result of torture. Legal logic does not apply.
- ypcx 15y ago
  "can imprison or kill you if that's what they feel like" Reminds me also of a certain north american country. Oh, never mind.
  - gnosis 15y ago
    Exactly. The US can just brand you a terrorist and assassinate you if it feels like it -- even if you're an American citizen -- no need to even extract a false confession under torture or have a sham trial (though there are plenty of those in the US as well). They could just kill you outright. Iran does not have a monopoly on mockeries of justice.
    - mvzink 15y ago
      > Iran does not have a monopoly on mockeries of justice. You're quite right. From these cases, the only real differences would seem to be 1) basis: terrorism vs. insulting Islam and 2) extremity: different bars for capital punishment.
  - mseebach 15y ago
    Yes, those are almost slightly related. Facepalm. Yes, the erosions in US justice over the past decade and change are rightly cause for great concern, but they are orders of magnitude from the total absence of the rule of law in Iran.
tlb 15y ago
There's certainly more to the story. He lived there as a citizen for many years and probably had enemies. Iran doesn't seem to be working their way through github. Remember, prosecutions start with who they want to get, and then try to find some laws they broke. So often the stated charge is something incidental like tax evasion.

AUmrysh 15y ago

I think the real thing to take from this story is never travel to Iran (until the people of that nation replace their totalitarian government with something respectable).

gcp 15y ago
Avoiding Iran isn't a problem, but there are several countries with similarly non-democratic governments and strictly islamic environments. I've done FOSS consulting in the Arab Emirates. That suddenly looks riskier now.
- corin_ 15y ago
  Join me in refusing to do any work that involves traveling to the UAE - as a gay man I've never had to worry about what they'll think of any work I do..
  - pavel_lishin 15y ago
    As someone who has friends who smoke marijuana - and therefore, as someone who might have stepped on miniscule amounts thereof and trapped particles in my shoes - I ain't going over there, either.
- tomjen3 15y ago
  That depends -- if had had been a Citizen of Canada, rather than a mere resident -- Canada would have been up in arms.
  - gcp 15y ago
    The government of those countries sometimes cares about that, but they also feel the need to set an example to appease the strict islamic side every now and then. Your government being up in arms about you may not prevent a bad outcome.
  - pooriaazimi 15y ago
    ...like those poor American hikers US government freed?!

robterrell 15y ago

That's deplorable. So basically, anyone who has code on GitHub that a pornographer (or other Islam-insulter) could use should never visit Iran. Seems like a clear case of a coerced confession -- he confessed to something that isn't even possible. Why isn't the Canadian government going bananas for him? They've got their own damn oil, right?

pavel_lishin 15y ago
> Seems like a clear case of a coerced confession -- he confessed to something that isn't even possible. As I understand it, that's kind of the way things work in Iran. (Note that as a privileged white male, my knowledge of this comes from various podcasts, so my opinion written on a post-it is worth a post-it.)
gdilla 15y ago
Because he's not a citizen, just a resident. Iran probably feels like no other country can have a say in this.

shadowfiend 15y ago

It's always said that one of the huge advantages of programming compared to other disciplines is the extremely low barrier of entry and the extremely low cost of taking a risk. You can develop something and all it costs you is time, so scrapping it is far easier than in any physical design situation. I don't think it's possible to discount how critical to this point of view our freedoms are. When you have a certain faith in the justice system (one generally corroborated by experience) and in the law, you have one less thing to worry about. We innovate because we not only don't fear wasting $N in materials in addition to our time, we also don't fear being dragged off to prison. Indeed, even if we did fear being dragged off to prison, I can't think of any situation where you could unintentionally get the death sentence for programming. Programming! Yes, SOPA and PIPA are bad, and yes, we should oppose them. But sometimes it's good to take a step back and look at what “bad” really looks like. And take a minute to think “Wow. We are fighting such minor battles in comparison.” Just a minute. Then it's time to get back in the fight. Because the minor losses slowly, imperceptibly, take you to the major battles.

CWuestefeld 15y ago
We innovate because we not only don't fear wasting $N in materials in addition to our time, we also don't fear being dragged off to prison. That's generally true, but not in all cases. Because I have Crohn's Disease, I've toyed with the idea of creating an app that would let a patient track their symptoms and diet, etc., to figure out what are the factors that cause a flare-up for them; and later upload the history to their doctor. But knowing (a) the regulations in the USA surrounding medical devices (does this count as one? who knows without a lawyer) and (b) the potential for liability for even the stupidest things, I've decided that the potential danger for me is nowhere near worth it.
- shadowfiend 15y ago
  Arguably that makes my statement true :) You didn't innovate precisely because you did fear those things. That said, you're right that we're not 100% free in this sense, even as software developers. We are just more free in this sense than many other hobbies/interests/occupations.

viraptor 15y ago

> "Canada condemns Iran’s reported decision to execute Mr. Malekpour" Is that really all Canada and other countries can do? Send a very, very angry letter using politically correct wording?

sp332 15y ago
He's a resident, not a citizen of Canada. They don't have any explicit obligation to this guy.
- viraptor 15y ago
  Ok, I actually thought he was not Iranian either, but that makes more sense now...
nekojima 15y ago
Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian dual citizen, was severely abused and murdered in an Iranian prison in 2003. There was little the Canadian government could do but to send a very angry letter. This issue still highly affects Iranian-Canadian diplomatic relations. For some of the details on the abuse she faced in prison: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahra_Kazemi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahra_Kazemi
kstenerud 15y ago
Pretty much. When it comes to international relations one must always tread carefully. A scene from Yes, Prime Minister might help illustrate the point. Jim Hacker (the Prime Minister) is talking to Sir Humphrey Appleby (Cabinet Secretary) about a nurse caught with a bottle of whiskey in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Kumran, and sentenced to 40 lashes. Jim: This is very worrying. There's a lot of public sympathy. Humphrey: I'm sure the Foreign Secretary will advise you. Jim: He advises me to do nothing. Humphrey: I'm sure that's good advice. Jim: Humphrey, we must do something. Humphrey: The Kumranis are good friends of Britain. They placed a huge defense contract with us, they tell us about the Soviets in Iraq, they even sabotage OPEC agreements for us. We can't afford to upset them. Jim: I know, but a British national is facing a barbaric punishment for a trivial offense. The Foreign Office is there to protect British nationals. Humphrey: To protect British interests. Jim: It's not in her interest to be flogged. Humphrey: It's not in ours to prevent it. Jim: This could hurt the government very badly. Humphrey: Well, I understand that tomorrow the Foreign Secretary will deliver a strong note of protest. Jim: Why can't he do it now? Humphrey: We haven't got their agreement yet! We're seeing the ambassador privately now. Once they approve the wording, we hand it over. Then we'll have done all we can. Jim: Very heartless. Humphrey: It's safer to be heartless than mindless. History is the triumph of the heartless over the mindless.

its_so_on 15y ago

what's an Iranian engineer to do. If you develop porn software, your government kills you. But if you work in nuclear engineering for your government, Israel kills you. I think the best policy would be for Israel to have a secret extraction program for Iranian engineers who are ideologically motivated and want to get into Internet porn engineering. Win-win-win-win (the last one is me.)

rbanffy 15y ago
> Israel to have a secret extraction program for Iranian engineers That's one very interesting idea. Offering citizenship and facilitating immigration will slowly brain-drain Iran which will, eventually, cause economic collapse a couple decades from now. The only downside is that Iran's political environment already shows strong signs of brain drainage.
- skeptical 15y ago
  They have been doing that for many years. Not in large scale though, only for the crop of the cream.
molmalo 15y ago
There are a couple of problems with this: - Iran sending "moles" to spy Israel or other countries. - They would become terrorist targets (for being traitors to the regime). - Some of them, even when they are against the government, are also against Israel. Religion is too much strong there. And anyway, I think that they can ask for political asylum for their own, while visiting other countries (but I dont know if they are free to travel).
TheSOB88 15y ago
What is this, a joke?
- its_so_on 15y ago
  yes!!

zobzu 15y ago

Well, as usual, fuck religion

cobrausn 15y ago
This has little to do with religion and more to do with power. There are secular regimes that have done equivalent (or worse).
viraptor 15y ago
Is it the religion itself though, or is it about tying the law execution and religion?
- guard-of-terra 15y ago
  It's easy to check, remove religion and see if it helps or not. It's of no use anyway. In most recent cases where one side was religious and other one wasn't, religious ones were usually bad guys. Stance on abortions, ID, this abomination. I can't remember them ever backing something good against secular people trying to do something bad.
  - greyboy 15y ago
    In the spirit of fairness - really? Communist Germany, USSR, Communist China/Mao, North Korea, Mussolini's Italy, etc.? All of those were or are "religious" governments?
    - guard-of-terra 15y ago
      I don't remember catholic church standing loudly against Mussolini or Hitler, neither russian orthodox church standing against Stalin. They were too busy fearing for their lives.

rbanffy 15y ago

Does anyone have data on how he was arrested? Was there some investigation of Iranian names in porn web sites or was he arrested because he was a Canadian resident visiting Iran and the porn accusations were pinned on him after arrest? The article says authorities spent a year assembling a case before any accusations were made. Is this a risk any Iranian citizen returning from the West faces? To be arrested and have charges fabricated after the arrest? Are there any other cases of this?

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

cies 15y ago

In reply to all the Iran hostility... Iran is not such a bad country. I can know because I've been traveling it for 5 weeks. It's a weird place, with a govt that is not much supported by the educated-youth. But not all that bad as the media try to make us believe. US has not closed Guatanamo, where they do their own share of trial-less, unfair-trail and/or unreasonable-trial sentence execution (including death penalty). Should we all now boycott the US? "Porn" is quite clearly just the flag under which this guy is punished for leaving (deserting) his country. Prisoners in Guatanamo similarly have an "official reason" for being there. Believe me, here in the Netherlands I know some folks with strong sentiments agains the US, and I tell them the same: "The US is not such a bad country". So maybe it is just me :)

jmduke 15y ago
Being a "bad country" is not relative. Denial of due process is an abomination of human rights, regardless of the number of countries committing it.
eternalban 15y ago
"Islamic Republic" of Iran is =/= Iran. As an American of Iranian descent I implore you to make note of this critically important difference. Thank you.
paulhauggis 15y ago
"Iran is not such a bad country. I can know because I've been traveling it for 5 weeks. It's a weird place, with a govt that is not much supported by the educated-youth. But not all that bad as the media try to make us believe." I'm sorry, but if the government of a country is going execute someone for "violating the sanctity of Islam", they are a bad country. By accepting this behavior, you are just allowing it to continue. I don't accept it and I will always be against a country that treats its citizens this way. More people need to stand up to this bullshit. "Believe me, here in the Netherlands I know some folks with strong sentiments agains the US, and I tell them the same: "The US is not such a bad country". So maybe it is just me :)" The US has some problems, but it's still better than 99% of the world in terms of freedom. Unlike the US, Most of the world has state-controlled media and an Internet Firewall. Hopefully, it never happens here in the US.

zeroboy 15y ago

Iran's death by stoning is particularly brutal, as you can see by this infographic (warning: if you are easily upset, don't read this): http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/2010/11/20/graphic-anatomy-of-a-stoning http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.natio...

_THE_PLAGUE 15y ago

I say the hackers of the world should hold a "burn a koran" day in protest. I am so sick of Islam pissing on freedom of expression. We need to fight back.

jk5sj7 15y ago

Is there a chance he was a spy? I ask because there are other Iranians who have been arrested (and sentenced to death) for espionage when visiting Iran from overseas.

Jach 15y ago
Are you one of the speculated pro-Iran bots sent to communities like ours who try to subvert public opinion on that backwards country?
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  Surely a user created only three hours ago, with only one comment and a random username wouldn't have nefarious purposes! Better double-check. Offer him some bacon.

rglover 15y ago

So wait a minute, the Canadian government is doing something about this, right? “Canada condemns Iran’s reported decision to execute Mr. Malekpour. Sadly, his case is far from the only example of Iran’s utter disregard for human life. The regime in Tehran frequently ignores principles like due process for its citizens domestically, and international human rights obligations generally.” From that I gather that this is being looked at as "out of our hands" by the Canadian government. Is that right? I know that relations with Iran are murky for many nations, but this is kind of ridiculous.

bostonpete 15y ago
What do you think Canada ought to be doing? Iran is executing an Iranian citizen for political reasons.
nodemaker 15y ago
I think you misread it as "Canadian Citizen" instead of "Canadian Resident".
- rglover 15y ago
  You would be correct.
- Volpe 15y ago
  Sad, that we've made country distinctions such that one word can mean the difference between caring about whether this man lives or dies and/or whether my country should do something about it.
  - rglover 15y ago
    Agreed. Despite my misunderstanding, my original statement stands: this guy obviously did nothing wrong and someone should be working to get him out of Iran and back to Canada.

justindocanto 15y ago

Wow. Poor guy. You try to make something useful, it gets into the hands of somebody that a country like IRAN hates... and you're to be killed. Never would have guessed this stuff happened/was possible when i was younger. blows me away.

dazbradbury 15y ago

Iran's recent history is fraught with human rights violations. Each time stories like this are raised (on an almost daily basis), we need to support those who are actively campaigning to improve situations for Iranians, and do our part by informing our leaders of these concerns. People can learn more about Iran's denial of education and send messages to UN members here: http://can-you-solve-this.org/ http://can-you-solve-this.org/ Or help support campaigns such as "The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran": http://www.iranhumanrights.org/ http://www.iranhumanrights.org/ If anyone has any other information on campaigns/activists tackling human rights violations, I would love to hear about them.

guard-of-terra 15y ago

I find that the article lacks the details about the software in question. In the age of hypertext no links are to be found. The problem with it is we can't for sure show how ridiculous the accusations are without having access to that information. Or is it unknown?

JL2010 15y ago
Agreed, does anyone have more specifics on what exactly he developed?

nazar 15y ago

This is just a screwed up verson of Islam they are having in Iran. If thats what Islam stands for, I don't want to be a muslim anymore. I am sick of these stupid gready people representing any religion( in this case Islam) from wrong perspective. There is no such a thing as killing a person if he/she disgraced Islam.

patrickaljord 15y ago
> There is no such a thing as killing a person if he/she disgraced Islam. https://www.google.com/#q=prophet%20ordered%20killing%20for%20insulting%20islam https://www.google.com/#q=prophet%20ordered%20killing%20for%...
azth 15y ago
Do you happen to speak Arabic by any chance? :)
- nazar 15y ago
  No, tho I am a muslim, I am not from arabic origin, so I just know some phrases and words concerning Islam
- mahmud 15y ago
  What does that have to do with anything? Most Iranians DON'T speak Arabic. The ones who do are in the tiny Ahwaz region and many of them refuse to call themselves Iranis.

caycep 15y ago

can he be extradited to canada to avoid this sentence?

dev_Gabriel 15y ago

Until when people are going to die in the name of religion?

Stormbringer 15y ago

Stupid question time: Why isn't the title "Death sentence for Canadian web programmer"? My naive reading of the article indicates that the man in question is a canadian citizen who was arrested when he visited Iran.

ianshward 15y ago

More than on any other thread I've read on Hacker News, I'm driven to say on this in particular: what can we do? Iran's government site runs IIS. Pressure Microsoft to revoke their license (if it's even legit). I'm ready for war. I donated to TOR (I'll never travel to Iran) a couple years ago around the Iranian elections. This scumbag government must tumble.

sliverstorm 15y ago

What I want to know- of what country is this man a citizen? It is no less awful of Iran if he is an Iranian citizen, but it might help explain Canada's seemingly lax reaction. (The article says he was a resident of Canada. Residency doesn't usually mean citizenship, right?)