Iranian of the Day

According to Kaleme website, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall and his family have been informed of his imminent execution during this week's visit at Evin Prison.

CBC, Canada: Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is appealing to the Iranian government to grant clemency to a Canadian who is facing the death sentence in Tehran.

Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, 42, was arrested in 2008 while visiting his family, and was later charged with espionage.

He was sentenced to death in 2009. An Iranian court has rejected an appeal.

"Canada is gravely concerned by indications that the execution of Mr. Ghassemi-Shall may be carried out imminently," Baird said in a joint statement Sunday with Diane Ablonczy, the junior minister for foreign affairs.

Baird called on the Iranian government to grant clemency to Ghassemi-Shall on compassionate and humanitarian grounds and to respect its international human rights obligations.
The Iranian-born Ghassemi-Shall emigrated to Canada after Iran's 1979 revolution, and most recently lived in Toronto.

He is awaiting execution in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, where another Canadian — photojournalist Zahra Kazemi of Montreal — was beaten, raped and killed in 2003.

Another Canadian resident, web programmer Saeed Malekpour of Richmond Hill, Ont., is also on death row in Evin prison. Malekpour, who was born in Iran, is charged with setting up a website that was used to post pornography. He maintains his innocence and says he was tortured into confessing to crimes against Islam.

Link to a 2011 interview with sister of Hamid Ghassemi-Shal about her brother's case:
Iranian-Canadian on Death Row Faced Torture and Unfair Trial

Clip of a 2011 interview with his Canadian wife, Antonella Mega: