A different front in the war on the internet

As internetados across the western world jump up and down and let out a much-deserved cry of 'YAAAAY!!', others are facing serious casualties in the ongoing war for a free internet. This story, on Gizmodo, came to me via my ever astute mate G.

UPDATE: The death sentence has been upheld again. Fuck.

Saeed Malekpour goes to visit his ailing dad back in '08. The bootboys of Iran's mad and repressive theocracy arrest him, torture him and coerce a false confession out of him.

His supposed crime? That he developed a piece of software used by a porn site as a direct attack against the greater glory of Islam.

Which all happens to be a complete load of absolute shit.

From Saeed himself;

They asked me to falsely confess to purchasing software from the UK and then posting it on my website for sale. I was forced to add that when somebody visited my website, the software would be, without his/her knowledge, installed on their computer and would take control of their webcam, even when their webcam is turned off. Although I told them that what they were suggesting was impossible from a technological point of view, they responded that I should not concern myself with such things.

Because a piece of software Saeed developed (photo uploading software btw) was used by a porn site without his notice, the following things happened to him;

• He was intercepted and kidnapped while briefly in the country visiting his dad.
• He was tortured.
• By virtue of torture, he was forced into making a televised (false) confession of his guilt. 
• He was forced, by torture, to include in his confession technical statements he knew were impossible.
• He was told 'not to concern himself' with giving a false, coerced through use of torture, confession that would be used to incriminate him.
• He was taken to court, and his sentence was suspended.
• On appeal in the Iranian Supreme Court, a DEATH SENTENCE was upheld.

So, Saeed - who lives in Canada - was kidnapped, tortured, forced to confess to fake charges, and will now face a state execution over something even the thickest fucking moron could see has nothing to do with him. Only the most evil fuckers could murder a man over complete lies and bullshit like this. Who needs facts, or justice, or the accused to speak in his own defence, when religion has been offended? While we fight the encroaching tyranny in the first world, some people live under the eventual goal - an autocratic regime that uses internet spying to intercept, torture and black-bag people. Saeed Malekpour is all of us - he's the rational, ordinary guy being oppressed - and in his case murdered - because some idiotic old fools are afraid that their own people may want to think for themselves.

Iran is one of the models of internet control some western leaders espouse as a good example on occasion. Is this what they want? Then fuck them. One Saeed Malekpour torture and execution is one too many.

As a species, we cannot live like this anymore. The institutions of ignorance, fear and torture CANNOT be allowed to continue pulling shit like this. Whether it's some state sanctioned Islamic bootboy in Iran beating the shit out of an innocent programmer, or a US Representative getting his arse greased with the filthy lucre of the entertainment industry, or an Australian MP hiring a private spying outfit to ensure dangerous and toxic mining adventures go ahead, and any opponents are labelled terrorists, one thing is becoming really fucking clear.

These crusty old bastards are afraid of people thinking for themselves, expressing an opinion, and partaking in any thought or deed that does not fit their feudal outlook. As a species we have struggled and fought for hundreds, thousands of years to better ourselves, to seek a right to a life of dignity, to seek free expression, to throw off time and again an unjust yoke placed on us by greedy, brutal lords and masters.

You can label it as hysterical hyperbole all you want, but the modern front is the internet, information and expression. It is no different to the struggles for freedom in ages past. In an age where those who have power over us can create laws to arbitrarily throw us in jail, cripple us with fines, label us dissidents or criminals, and even torture us or kill us, we are no different from the peasant farmer in ages past who would be strapped to a heated iron throne if he rose up against his feudal master.*

If there is no intervention, and Saeed Malekpour is executed, then as a species we have failed, we have fallen once more into that recurring trap of tyranny we return to, age after age and seemingly never learn from.



*This actually happened in a Hungarian peasant uprising. The leader was strapped to an iron throne, and a fire was lit at its base. He was roasted alive. Ghastly, horrible and true. Now instead of bonfires the human race has Gitmo, indefinite detention, torture and unaccountable surveillance.