40 Student Organizations Demand Unconditional Release of Yashar Soltani and Investigation into Municipality

40 student organizations from various universities in Iran issued a statement demanding the "unconditional" release of Yashar Soltani, the editor-in-chief of the Architecture News website, and "transparency regarding the cases of those who have violated public assets" concerning the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran. Meanwhile, Iran's Minister of Interior announced on Monday, October 9, that he held a meeting with Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the mayor of Tehran, who expressed readiness to provide "documents and evidence" regarding the transfer of these properties, stating that the Ministry of Interior would report to the government after the documents were submitted. According to the website Kalameh, these student organizations emphasized in their statement that Yashar Soltani acted solely to "inform the public" and that "no criminal charges can be attributed to him." The authors of the statement noted that in the case of the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran, which was exposed by the Architecture News website, it is the officials who are "in a position of accusation and must continuously declare their innocence through transparency." The statement also highlighted the "legal and ethical duty" of student organizations to combat "any violation of citizens' rights." Yashar Soltani, the editor of Architecture News, which revealed the transfer of municipal properties, was arrested on Saturday, September 18, after visiting the prosecutor's office and remains in custody. The Architecture News website had also been filtered prior to Soltani's arrest. Although a bail of 200 million tomans was set for Soltani, the prosecutor refused to approve it after it was secured, until a new charge of "collecting classified information with the intent to disrupt national security" was brought against him on October 4. Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists had previously issued separate statements calling for Soltani's release. In recent weeks, several members of parliament have protested Soltani's arrest, with Mahmoud Sadqi, a representative from Tehran, stating that the continued detention of this journalist is an "open attempt to cover up the violations" of the Tehran municipality. Masoud Pezeshkian, the first deputy speaker of parliament, also criticized the municipality's violent approach towards critical media, stating that he "absolutely does not deny the occurrence of violations in the municipality." Rahmatollah Hafezi, the head of the Health Commission of the Tehran City Council, had also requested the head of the judiciary to remove the case of the Architecture News website manager from security matters and treat it as a press issue. According to an image published from a letter by the General Inspection Organization of the country on the Architecture News website and some other media, the Tehran municipality illegally sold 200 properties belonging to it at "unrealistic" and "very low" prices, with a "50 percent" discount and in "60-month" installments to some managers of this institution and individuals close to the mayor of Tehran. Abdulreza Rahmani Fazli, the Minister of Interior, had previously requested an investigation into this matter in a letter to his deputy. Meanwhile, according to ILNA news agency, Rahmani Fazli also stated on Monday that the mayor of Tehran had informed him in a meeting that he would also provide the "documents and evidence" he submitted to the Inspection Organization and the judiciary to the Ministry of Interior. He added: "With the submission of these documents by the municipality, the Ministry of Interior is obliged to conduct the necessary investigations assigned to it by the government and will report to the government based on the examination of the documents and evidence." The Architecture News website had named several members of the Tehran City Council, including Mohsen Pirhadi, Elaheh Rastgoo, Masoumeh Abad, Hadi Saei, and Abolfazl Ghanavati, as having received properties in northern Tehran at discounted prices. These five members of the Tehran City Council have filed complaints against 14 news websites and Telegram channels, including ILNA news agency, and Masoud Heydari, the CEO of this news agency, was charged on Sunday, October 2, in the "Culture and Media" prosecutor's office. The judiciary also blocked two news agencies, Moj and Borna, and several news websites, including Pouyesh, 9 Sobhe, and Persian Khodro, on September 5 due to "complaints in judicial authorities." The Borna news agency was unblocked on September 10, but the other websites remain blocked. Ahmad Masjedjamie, a member of the Tehran City Council, and some other political figures have accused the Iranian judiciary of "double standards" regarding the issue of the transfer of municipal properties, emphasizing that websites that "levied serious accusations against the government under the pretext of salary slips" were not filtered, and the filtering of the Architecture News website will be perceived by public opinion as "double standards regarding a problem." However, Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, rejected the notion of "double standards" in the judiciary regarding the issues of "astronomical salaries and the Tehran municipality case," stating that "foreign counter-revolutionaries are trying to convey that everyone in the Islamic Republic is corrupt and a thief by riding this wave." Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the judiciary, also stated on Sunday, September 17, that the judicial pursuit of some "media figures" and the filtering of some websites were unrelated to the issue of the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran. Previously, several members of the Iranian parliament had announced the introduction of a plan to investigate the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran, and in this regard, the spokesperson for the Parliament's Urban Development Commission also reported the receipt of the investigation file regarding the Tehran municipality.