Charges Against ILNA CEO Following Complaint from Five Members of Tehran City Council

With a complaint from five members of the City Council against 14 news websites and Telegram channels for "spreading false information, insult, and defamation," the CEO of the Iranian Labor News Agency has been informed of charges related to the case of municipal property transfers. ILNA reported on Sunday, October 2, that Masoud Heydari, who was summoned to the 'Culture and Media' prosecutor's office by the complaint of five council members, was informed of the charges this morning. The plaintiffs are Hadi Saei, Mohsen Pirhadi, Masoumeh Abad, Elaheh Rastgoo, and Abolfazl Ghanavati. According to this report, his specific charge is "spreading false information with the intent to disturb public opinion." The deputy prosecutor of the twelfth branch of the 'Culture and Media' prosecutor's office has given Mr. Heydari one week to present his documents related to the case of municipal property transfers and the city council members to this court. The defense attorney for Abolfazl Ghanavati, a member of the Tehran Islamic City Council, also confirmed that his client and four other members of the council have filed complaints against the Iranian Labor News Agency as well as the Borna News Agency. According to Hassan Ghasemi, the five members of the Tehran City Council have collectively filed complaints against 10 news websites and four Telegram channels. He added that the responsible managers of these websites and Telegram channels will separately receive the plaintiffs' summonses. The publication of a report by the General Inspection Organization of the country regarding the transfer of several properties and lands under the control of Tehran Municipality, with special discounts and installments to certain managers and individuals, has sparked a new controversy in the political atmosphere of the country. While some conservatives accuse Hassan Rouhani's government of initiating this issue in response to the 'astronomical salaries' scandal, the judiciary has taken action in this regard following the complaint of the city council president and the mayor of Tehran. On September 18, Yashar Soltani, the editor of the ArchitecNews website, who was summoned for publishing reports about the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran, was arrested due to his inability to provide a 200 million tomans bail. This website, as the first media outlet to publish this news, was also taken offline. Sadegh Kashani, Yashar Soltani's defense attorney, stated that his client has three plaintiffs due to the publication of news about the wedding of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's daughter, the mayor of Tehran, in Lavizan Park, the appointment of Mehdi Chamran's son, the president of the Tehran City Council, as deputy of the Abbasabad Land Renewal Company, and the transfer of municipal properties to certain individuals. On October 1, the 'International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran' reported, citing an informed source, that a new charge had been filed in Yashar Soltani's case under the title 'collecting classified information with the aim of undermining national security.' The judiciary also blocked the news agencies Moj and Borna, as well as several news websites including Pouyesh, 9 Sobhe, and Persian Khodro due to 'complaints in judicial authorities' on September 5. The Borna news agency was unblocked on September 20, but the other websites remain blocked. In this context, the arrest of the editor of the critical website after 'failure to secure bail' has led to confrontations in the city council over the whistleblower of 'corruption' in Tehran Municipality.