An Iranian-Canadian man convicted of espionage and having links with an opposition group is facing imminent execution in Iran.
Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, 44, returned toIranfromCanadainMay2008 to visit his elderly mother and was detained on suspicion of gathering information for the Iranian militant group Mujahideen e-Khalq (MEK). The Iranian leadership considers the MEK its staunch enemy, and the US has listed the group as a terrorist organisation.
He spent 18 months in solitary confinement at Evin prison in Tehran, with no access to his family or legal representation. His wife, Anatonella Mega, said Ghassemi-Shall was tried in 2009 in a court hearing that lasted a few minutes.
He was convicted and given a deathsentence onthe basisof what officials said was an email to his brother Alborz in which, they said, he asked for some information to be collected for the MEK.
