Mahdi Nasiri, former editor-in-chief of Kayhan newspaper, released after hours of detention

Mahdi Nasiri's Telegram channel reported his release from the detention center of the police force in Mashhad. Previously, Fareshteh Mozeinani, Nasiri's wife, had announced the detention of this political activist by security agencies at the Ferdowsi shrine. On Sunday, February 3, she wrote in a Telegram channel attributed to Nasiri that her husband was arrested after filming a video at this shrine by the agents of the location and was transferred to the police station in Tus. Mozeinani stated that the reason for this detention was Nasiri's comments in the video regarding the role of Reza Shah Pahlavi in the construction of this shrine. She further wrote that this political activist was later handed over to the Ministry of Intelligence officials by the police authorities. Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted a security official from Khorasan province stating: 'Mahdi Nasiri filmed today at the Ferdowsi shrine in a location where filming was prohibited.' The news agency added that Nasiri had refused to delete his video, which led to him being charged by the prosecutor's office and placed in temporary detention. Mahdi Nasiri, who also has religious studies education, has been writing for the hardline Kayhan newspaper since 1986 and became its editor-in-chief in the early 1990s by the order of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. He resigned after Hossein Shariatmadari was appointed as the representative of the Supreme Leader in this hardline media outlet. In recent years, Nasiri has taken critical stances against the Supreme Leader and the actions of Iranian officials. He referred to the death of Mahsa Amini as the 'source of the Woman, Life, Freedom revolution' and stated: 'The day Mahsa was killed, all of humanity was killed.' Last year, in April, Nasiri was summoned to the fourth branch of the Special Clerical Court in Qom due to a complaint from Hamid Rasai, a hardline cleric, and was also summoned by the IRGC's intelligence for writing some articles.