Middle East News

Iranian police remains puzzled over porno images on city billboard

Dec 23, 2007, 17:57 GMT

Tehran - Iranian police on Sunday were still puzzled over pornographic images broadcast on an LCD billboard in downtown Karaj, 30 kilometres west of Tehran, ISNA news agency reported.

The images were shown for several seconds last week on the billboard - usually reserved for state-authorized advertisements - in Azadesgan Square in Karaj, causing surprise among the people in the square at that time.

Pornography is an absolute taboo issue in Islamic Iran where any form of contact between men and women in films and TV series is censored.

In the first phase, an unidentified number of men, believed to be employed by the advertising company had been arrested but later on released after no evidence could be found on their computers, Tehran police chief General Reza Zarei said.

But after the incident, filmed with mobile devices by some Karaj citizens, the images were widely distributed via the Internet, and the same people were once again arrested and their office sealed, the police chief added.

However, it still remains unclear to the police and judiciary how the pornographic images got onto the billboard. There are speculations that somebody played a trick on the advertising company by putting the pictures on the company computer.

Making and distributing pornographic materials is considered as a crime in Iran and offenders face heavy cash fines, prison terms and even the death sentence if the material is produced without the knowledge of those involved.

The police on Sunday also started a new wave of raids on video shops in Tehran to confiscate illegal DVDs - unauthorized and uncensored Western films sold on the black market at prices between 1 and 2 dollars.

The police raids however have not had any tangible long-term effects so far as just a few days after the raids the DVDs can easily be obtained in the market again.