Iranian jailed for life for running porn site

Iranian-Canadian programmer sentenced to life by Iranian court for allegedly running largest Persian language porn site. Original sentence was death

AFP|Published: 08.26.13 , 20:43

Iran has commuted to life in prison the death sentence of a computer programmer convicted for allegedly designing a pornographic website in 2010, his lawyer told Mehr news agency Monday.

Saeed Malekpour, a permanent resident of Canada, was arrested in December 2008 in Iran when he returned to his native land to visit his dying father and accused of operating a pornographic website.

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"He repented, blocking implementation of the death sentence, and it has been commuted to life in prison," lawyer Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabee said.

According to human rights groups and his family, the 37-year-old was found guilty in December 2010 on three counts, including "designing and moderating adult content websites" "and "insulting the sanctity of Islam." The judiciary suspended the sentence last December and he was found guilty in 2012 of spreading corruption and sentenced to death.

Amnesty International said one of the web designer's programs was used without his knowledge to publish pornographic images. Iranian media have called Malekpour the head of the biggest Persian-language network of pornographic websites.

In 2012, the semi-official Iranian news agency ISNA repoted that Iranian police hope to work with Facebook to fight cyber-crimes and pornography – a turnabout in Tehran's stance toward the social networking giant that it previously banned after activists used it as an organizing tool.

A report by ISNA quoted Gen. Kamal Hadianfar, head of Iran's cyber-police, as saying the country is trying to remove pages on Facebook created by Iranian citizens that promote pornography and prostitution.