Canada blasts Iran over porn death sentence

AFP,

Canada yesterday renewed its condemnation of Tehran over a death sentence handed down to an Iranian-born Canadian resident for operating a porn site.

"Canada remains deeply concerned by the continued flagrant disregard of the Iranian authorities for the rights of both Iranian and dual-national citizens," said Melissa Lantsman, spokesperson for Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.

"This appears to be another case in which someone in Iran is facing a death sentence after a highly questionable process.

"We continue to call on Iran to respect its domestic and international obligations and ensure fairness and due process for all its citizens and others."

Saeed Malekpour, 35, was convicted of "designing and moderating adult content websites," "agitation

against the regime" in Tehran and "insulting the sanctity of Islam," according to an online campaign calling for his release.

He worked as a freelance website developer and programmer, and designed a software program for uploading photos onto websites, which the Campaign for Release of Saeed Malekpour said was used, unbeknownst to him, for the creation of a porn website.

Malekpour arrived in Canada in 2004, but was detained in Iran after returning in 2008 to visit his father. He was sentenced to death in December. Ottawa said then that it was "deeply concerned" by the verdict, but did not intervene directly in the case because Malekpour is not a Canadian citizen.

On Sunday, Iran's prosecutor general, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, was quoted by the Islamic republic's official IRNA news agency saying two porn verdicts were sent to the high court for confirmation. He did not identify the two individuals sentenced to death.