Man Sentenced To Die For Making Porn Site Escapes Iran Prison

Saeed Malekpour, a 44-year-old Canadian resident and software engineer, arrived safely in Vancouver on Friday after escaping from a brutal Iranian prison 11 years into a life sentence on porn charges—charges for which he was originally sentenced to death. But Malekpour was let out of the prison on a short work release last week and instead of returning, escaped to Canada, according to a BBC report.  In 2008, on a visit to his home country, Malekpour was arrested by Iranian authorities and accused of creating software to upload pornographic images to the web. Malekpour protested that the software was open source and that he had no control over how it was used. But he was convicted of "spreading corruption on earth” and sentenced to die. Iranian authorities later reduced the sentence to life in prison after they claimed that the now-44-year-old Malekpour “repented.” But according to Amnesty International, Malekpour had been repeatedly subjected to physical and psychological torture in the prison, including a full year in solitary confinement. In a letter written in 2010, Malekpour also said that he had been forced into his “confession,” according to The Canadian Press news agency.  He made a visit to Canada in 2008 to visit his father, who was ill. But upon his return, he was quickly arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as part of a government crackdown on “immoral” or “un-Islamic” activities on the internet, according to the Canadian news service Global News.  His case became the subject of intense attention by international human rights activists, who finally were able to move the United Nations to pressure Iran into granting Malekpour a short pass from prison, though he was required to return after three days. Instead, he fled the country with the help of Canadian officials, arriving safely in Vancouver Friday. The Iranian government did not approve of his return to Canada and described it as "illegal." Malekpour's father and other family members in Iran had no knowledge of his escape plans, according to Malekpour’s lawyers. “Canada welcomes the news that Saeed Malekpour has been reunited with his family in Canada,” the Canadian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, quoted by the French Press Agency, but no further details of how Malekpour escaped were revealed. Photo via Free Said Malekpour Facebook