NDP Leader Jack Layton wants the federal government to send a high level delegation to Iran to demand the release of a Canadian journalist who has been detained for three weeks.
Layton held a news conference Sunday morning at the Toronto home of Maziar Bahari, a reporter who was working for Newsweek in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Bahari was taken from the apartment he shares with his mother in the early morning hours of June 21 by a team of Iranian security officers.
Bahari was one of dozens of journalists who were arrested in Iran in the wake of protests following last month's national elections.
"It's not just about a Canadian," Layton said Sunday afternoon on Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel. "It's about the whole issue of journalists around the world who are trying to report the truth being imprisoned and, in some cases, held for long periods of time and some of them have not survived."
Bahari, 42, was born in Iran but studied at Montreal's Concordia University before moving to Toronto. He holds both Iranian and Canadian citizenship.
He was among dozens of journalists who were arrested in the wake of demonstrations that broke out in Iran after last month's national elections.
The government responded with a crackdown on both the protesters and journalists, who were only allowed to report on the demonstrations from their offices.
The day after Bahari was arrested, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon called in Iran's charge d'affaires to express his concern.
Canadian consular officials in Tehran also requested access to Bahari, but it is unclear if they have been able to meet with him.
He was 'doing his job'
According to a letter published on Newsweek's website by editor Jon Meacham, Iranian state media have reported that Bahari has confessed to being a part of a foreign media conspiracy that fuelled the protests.
Meacham said such accusations are untrue.
"Some in the government of Iran would like to portray Bahari as a kind of subversive or even as a spy," Meacham said. "He is neither. He is a journalist, a man who was doing his job, and doing it fairly and judiciously, when he was arrested."
According to Meacham, Bahari is being held without charge or access to a lawyer and has only been allowed to make two phone calls -- both have been to his 83-year-old mother.
"With respect, then, we ask the government of Iran to grant Bahari the rights he is guaranteed under Iranian law: that he be allowed to see a lawyer and, if there are no charges against him -- and we believe there should be no charges -- that he be released immediately."
Bahari's predicament is reminiscent of the case of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi.
Kazemi died in Iranian custody in July 2004, several days after she was detained while taking photographs at a protest outside of Evin prison, in northern Tehran.
A presidential inquiry found that she died from a "physical attack," although no one has been charged in the case.
Layton said he is afraid that the same fate will befall Bahari.
"We need to realize that Mr. Bahari is in a very, very dangerous situation. The Kazemi case tells us that," Layton said.
Layton also urged Canadians to show their support for Bahari, whose partner is five months pregnant, by joining a Facebook group, Free Maziar Bahari Now!
