Death punishment In Iran for Uploading Software

Death punishment In Iran for Uploading Software

Saeed Malekpour

Saeed Malekpour the programmer, who was arrested by Iranian police when he entered the country to visit his terminally ill father, was sentenced to death in December 2010

The death sentence has now been re-instated amid protests by his supporters and international human rights watchdog Amnesty International, which said that Iran must not execute the web programmer, who was sentenced after one of his web programs was used to post pornographic images without his knowledge.

According to civil liberties activist website, United For Iran, charges levied against the programmer include “Taking action against national security by designing and moderating adult content websites”; “Agitation against the regime”; “Contact with foreign entities”; “Insulting the sanctity of Islam” and “Insulting the Supreme Leader and President”. The site also claims that Malekpour was charged with the crime of Mofsed fel-Arz, or spreading corruption on Earth, a crime punishable by death.

After his 2008 arrest, Malekpour was allegedly held in solitary confinement for over a year where he was tortured into confessing to running porn sites. According to the Guardian, he later retracted his confession in a letter where he wrote “A large portion of my confession was extracted under pressure, physical and psychological torture, threats to myself and my family, and false promises of immediate release upon giving a false confession to whatever the interrogators dictated.”

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