Summons of Mohammad Reza Naqdi to the Prosecutor's Office

The newspaper Hamdeli dedicated its front page on Tuesday to the statements of "Mohammad Anjam," the lawyer of Mohammad Khatami, the reformist president, regarding the complaint against Mohammad Reza Naqdi and the summons of the former Basij commander to the prosecutor's office. According to him, despite the summons process for Mohammad Reza Naqdi, this "defendant has not appeared before the judicial authority." The lawyer of Mohammad Khatami announced the news of "the summons of General Naqdi due to the complaint of his client," stating: "According to the announcement of the investigating branch, based on the judiciary's directive regarding the summons of commanders and military officials with the rank of general through the special office of the General Staff of the Armed Forces in the office of the Supreme Leader, the summons of General Naqdi has been communicated to that office." Hamdeli noted that Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the current social and cultural deputy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), had previously stated in a speech during a "conference of Basij commanders, Salihin instructors, Ashura battalions, and Al-Bayt al-Muqaddas of Yazd" in Bahman 1394 (January 2016) that "we should not take pride in someone who has received money from the kings of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, even if he is a cleric, a Sayyid, and a president," as "the kings of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain pay for that individual's activities to influence the selection of people in the parliament and presidency." Despite denying these statements, Mohammad Reza Naqdi has repeatedly accused Mohammad Khatami, and according to Mohammad Anjam, the lawyer of Mohammad Khatami, "recently General Naqdi stated in an interview with the newspaper Shargh that Mr. Khatami receives money from the king of Saudi Arabia to advance his work," which "is an act of General Naqdi that is a form of insult and public disturbance since this claim has no basis. About two weeks ago, we filed a criminal complaint titled dissemination of falsehoods and public disturbance against General Naqdi in the 4th branch of the media prosecutor's office, which is currently under investigation." The newspaper Arman also noted that the spokesman of the judiciary confirmed the registration of Khatami's complaint against Naqdi. According to this newspaper, Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje'i, the spokesman of the judiciary, responded to a question regarding whether the reformist president had filed a complaint against General Naqdi and whether a case had been formed in this regard, stating: "Yes, this complaint has been registered and is being pursued in the prosecutor's office. Any individual who seeks justice and files a complaint will naturally be addressed. This case is also in the preliminary stage, and its investigation is within the jurisdiction of the investigating authority. We have had many defendants and criminals against whom a ruling has been issued, and they have filed complaints against others, even while they were in prison, but they managed to convict the other party with their complaint." The newspaper Shahrvand reported that Saideh, Zahra, Zobideh Amiri Javan, and Fatemeh Baluch Lashari, four schoolgirls, lost their lives in a traffic accident on Sunday. This newspaper wrote: "It was Sunday morning when three schoolgirl sisters named Saideh, Zobideh, and Zahra, along with two of their friends, left their home in the Lashar district of Nikshahr to go to school as they did every day. Their school is located in the central part of the village of Espkeh, 10 kilometers away from their residence. Therefore, these three sisters, along with their two friends, went to school every day in their father's pickup truck, but a tragic event on Sunday caused them never to reach school. The five students, who were in secondary education, were about to get into the pickup truck when they suddenly saw a truck coming towards them. This truck collided violently with the pickup truck. In an instant, the five schoolmates were under the wheels of the truck, resulting in the deaths of four of these students." The other schoolgirl who fell victim to this traffic accident is named Fatemeh Baluch Lashari, and a student named Zahra Amiri Reja was also injured. Alireza Nakhaei, the director general of education in Sistan and Baluchestan, noted that "it is said that the driver of the truck was a 14 or 15-year-old boy who did not have a license," stating to this newspaper: "It seems that at that moment he was transporting goods with the truck when he collided with these schoolgirls, as a normal driver would never veer off course and head towards students standing by the roadside, so the likelihood that the driver was a teenager without a license is high." The governor of Nikshahr also told the Shahrvand newspaper: "Two of the deceased students were in the first year of middle school, and two others were in the second year of middle school, who suffered this tragic accident. They traveled a long distance every day to reach their school, which is why they went to school in one of their parents' pickup trucks, but their route was not unsafe, and we have not had a similar accident until now." The newspaper Qanoon published photos of the wife of a "war veteran" from the Iran-Iraq war in its Tuesday issue, one of which was taken when she visited this newspaper to express her problems and those of other wives and families in similar situations, while the other shows the same woman with a bandaged face and hospitalized after "self-immolating in front of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs in Tehran." This newspaper did not publish the name and identity of this woman but wrote that she was present at the gathering of veterans on Saturday in Taleqani Street and set up a tent in front of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs in Tehran on Sunday morning, after which she set herself on fire and was burned on her face and hands and is currently hospitalized." This newspaper described the reason for this gathering as "the tragic situation of the families of martyrs, veterans, and the injured and a protest gathering." The newspaper Shahrvand, while publishing a report on "the first national conference on social policy in Iran," quoted Hesam al-Din Ashna, an advisor to the president and the speaker at the opening of this conference, stating: "Social issues are more complex than nuclear issues." According to this newspaper, less than two weeks before the end of the year, the first national conference on social policy in Iran was held to once again emphasize the importance of attention to social issues. A conference that focused on the complexity of social issues, approaches, historical developments, institutional challenges, and the evaluation of policies in the social field, where speakers, one after another, referred to the issues in this area as the most important current challenge facing the country. Among other things, the newspaper quoted Mohammad Hosseini, one of the speakers at this ceremony, in "analyzing three social policymaking institutions regarding social policies concerning children in Iran after the revolution," stating: "According to the statistics of the national media in 1394 and 1395, 18 students committed suicide, according to the Ministry of Health's announcement in 1393 and 1394, 200,000 children under six years old suffer from malnutrition, and according to one of the officials of the Ministry of Welfare, 150,000 children do not have identity cards, and 300,000 children are out of school." The newspaper Iran reported, citing the spokesman of the judiciary, about the "issuance of a definitive prison sentence for six of the defendants in the attack on the Saudi embassy" and wrote: "They are in prison." This newspaper reminded that "on 12 Dey 1394 (January 1, 2016), a group protested against the execution of 'Sheikh Nimr,' a high-ranking Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia, in front of the embassy of that country in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad" and "subsequently entered the embassy of that country," and "following the formation of a case for the defendants in the attack on the Saudi embassy, the cases of some of them were sent to the special prosecutor's office for the clergy." According to this newspaper, Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje'i, in response to a question regarding the latest status of the attack by the defendants on the Saudi embassy and whether most of these individuals had been acquitted, rejected the acquittal of the majority of them, stating: "The defendants were more than 20 people, three of whom were acquitted, and the cases that were in the special prosecutor's office for the clergy, the sentences of six of them were definitive, and they are in prison. In relation to this case, some were convicted in the judiciary, but their sentences were not definitive imprisonment; some also received definitive imprisonment sentences, which they are seeking to appeal, and we must see where their appeal goes." The newspaper Etemad dedicated its front page to the issuance of a directive by Eshaq Jahangiri for "dealing with Telegram liars" and quoted him as saying: "The first vice president rejected the news against the government and requested the Minister of Intelligence to pursue it." According to this newspaper, Telegram channels close to the principlists attributed statements to Eshaq Jahangiri that "were aimed at undermining the government and indicated that the reformists were severely disappointed with Rouhani," but on Sunday, Eshaq Jahangiri published a letter addressed to the Minister of Intelligence and the prosecutor of Tehran, not only denying these statements but also calling for the pursuit and confrontation with the disseminators of these false news. Simultaneously, the newspaper Javan, close to the IRGC, in its front page titled "35 Million Salary in the Current Government," quoted the head of the Court of Audit as saying: "A person with six years of non-governmental posts and three posts in government is currently receiving a salary of 35 million from the government, and we have kept the case of 119 institutions accused of paying astronomical salaries open."