Tehran Prosecutor Warns Athletes and Artists About Social Media

The Tehran prosecutor warned athletes and artists against publishing what he called inappropriate images and violations of Islamic norms on social media. According to ISNA, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of Tehran, said on Wednesday, January 6, in a meeting with reporters: "In recent weeks, inappropriate photos and images contrary to Islamic norms have been published on social media, leading to the formation of several legal cases. The public prosecutor acts in accordance with its inherent duties in such cases." According to Mr. Jafari Dolatabadi, "The publication of images contrary to Islamic standards by some athletes and artists on social media has led the Tehran prosecutor's office to intervene from a public crime perspective and deal with the offenders." The next topic of the Tehran prosecutor's speech was "invasion of the privacy of others." He said: "In the past three weeks, some individuals have invaded the privacy of others and published private images of individuals on social media, which faced timely action from the prosecutor's office." Mr. Dolatabadi added: "In one case, after a case was formed, the suspect was identified and arrested, and other cases are also under investigation." In this meeting, the Tehran prosecutor did not refer to the details of these cases. Recently, Sosha Makani, the goalkeeper of the Persepolis football team, was arrested following the publication of images of him on social media. Last week, photos of this national player were published on Telegram. In response to the publication of his photos, he stated that he would file a complaint with the cyber police to pursue the matter, as these images are private and one of the girls in the photo is his fiancée. Makani claimed that the theft of his phone led to the publication of the photos. He is currently detained in Evin prison, and even some prominent figures in Iranian football, such as Ali Parvin and Ali Daei, who intended to meet with him and help resolve this issue, have not been able to do so. Earlier, in this regard, Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, the commander of the Iranian police, had warned individuals he referred to as "social media and social network norm violators."