While Iran’s foes applaud Ottawa’s sudden move to close its Tehran embassy and expel Iranian diplomats, three men from Canada who are jailed in notoriously brutal Evin Prison have little to cheer about.

Saeed Malekpour and Hamid Ghassemi-Shall are on death row awaiting execution, on charges human rights advocates call politically motivated. Hossein Derakhshan, known as Iran’s “blogfather” for introducing blogging to the Islamic Republic, is serving 19 ½ years.

“I am very disappointed,” says Ghassemi-Shall’s wife, Antonella Mega. “I had hoped there could be a dialogue between the two countries. I am convinced that is the only way that Hamid will be released.”

Ghassemi-Shall, a 43-year-old Toronto shoe salesman and Canadian citizen, has been imprisoned since he was arrested during a family visit in 2008. He was tried and sentenced to death on espionage charges. Malekpour, 36, a Canadian resident and web developer arrested the same year while visiting his dying father, was charged with masterminding a network of websites used to upload pornographic images.

Both men were tried without any defence, and tortured under interrogation.

Last month a few pardons were handed out to condemned prisoners in Iran. But, Mega said, her husband “choked back tears” during a brief phone call from the prison when he learned he was not among them.

Iranian officials in Ottawa had invited Mega to come to Tehran this spring to make a plea for her husband’s life. But as relations chilled between Iran and the West over its nuclear ambitions, threats against Israel and support of the Syrian regime, Mega’s hopes of bringing Ghassemi-Shall home crumbled.

“I don’t know where we will go from here,” she said.

Bryon Wilfert, a former Liberal MP for Richmond Hill, said closing a channel of communication with Iran is regrettable but that “the signals were there” for a total break in Canadian relations with Iran for some time. Until his defeat in the 2011 election, Wilfert had frequent contacts with Iranian embassy officials over human rights cases, and pressed the case of Malekpour, his then constituent, with some positive results.

But even earlier relations were becoming increasingly strained, he said. They took a turn for the worse in 2003, when Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in Evin Prison, apparently after horrific torture. Since then, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, belligerent stance toward Israel and backing for militant groups have also angered the Harper government.

“(Ottawa) took a long time making the decision to close their visa section from Tehran and moving everything to Ankara,” Wilfert said. “The attack on the British embassy in Tehran” by a mob of students last November “was obviously the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

But the abruptness of Ottawa’s move to sever relations has puzzled even some diplomats.

“I don’t see any compelling reason to close the embassy,” said Ken Taylor, the Canadian hero of the 1979 hostage crisis, who helped six American diplomats escape from Tehran. “I don’t see heightened jeopardy for Canada, we’re at the same risk as everybody else. We’re not as high profile as the British.”

Rather than expel the Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, Taylor added, Canada might have whittled the size of the staff, leaving channels of communication open for handling sensitive diplomatic cases.

There are indications that Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is preparing to make alternative arrangements for dealing with the plight of the prisoners.

“I have a meeting scheduled with Baird on Sept. 24,” said Liberal MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler, who advocates for Iranian political prisoners but backed the severing of diplomatic ties. “One of the things on that agenda is how will this impact the political prisoners.”

Cotler closely monitors Iran’s threats to its citizens and the international community. And he says, “On every front they have been getting worse,” as sanctions against Iran bite more deeply. “I have never seen a month like this August.”

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Amnesty International released a report Friday that raised fears for the lives of 22 prisoners in Iranian jails who are scheduled for execution Saturday, and made a plea to have their sentences commuted. It was not known if Malekpour or Ghassemi-Shall were among them.

Ottawa’s severance of diplomatic ties has also raised “questions and concerns” for the men’s future, said Alex Neve, who heads Amnesty International Canada. “We understand many reasons why (the government) is anxious, frustrated and worried about the situation in Iran and the role it plays in the region, and its human rights record.

“At the same time we are aware of the fact that there are cases where the very lives of a Canadian and permanent resident hang in the balance. It will obviously be crucial for Canada to move forward in a way that will not jeopardize their cases.”

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