Iran Court Suspends Death Sentence Against Programmer – Report

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(RFE/RL) — Authorities in Iran have reportedly suspended the death sentence handed down to a computer programmer for allegedly operating an adult-content website, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

A defense lawyer was quoted as saying he hopes Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian-born programmer with permanent residency in Canada, will be given a reduced sentence.

Malekpour, 37, was arrested in December 2008 while in Iran to visit his ailing father.

In 2010, he was convicted of three counts of “designing and moderating adult-content websites” and “insulting the sanctity of Islam.”

Malekpour says a program he developed for posting photographs to the Internet was used without his knowledge to create porn sites.

In February, European Union foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton called for Iran to rescind Malekpour’s death sentence.

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