August 27, 2013 | Sex & Society

Iranian will not be put to death for porn

Saeed Malekpour, a permanent resident of Canada, was arrested in December 2008 when he returned to Iran to visit his dying father. He was accused of operating a pornographic website, which he denied throughout his trial.

In 2010, the married 37-year-old was found guilty on three counts, including "designing and moderating adult content websites" and "insulting the sanctity of Islam." He was sentenced to death.

However, this week the death sentence was reduced to life in prison.

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

While an Iranian prison cell will certainly be awful, at least he has a chance of appealing and maybe even getting out of the country.

Iranian gets life for running porn site [The Times of Israel]