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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 visiting 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.
