Yashar Soltani, Whistleblower of Municipal Violations, Released on Bail

Yashar Soltani, the editor-in-chief of the 'Memari News' website, who was arrested on September 18 after being summoned to the fourth branch of the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office, has been released on bail. According to ILNA, the Iranian Labor News Agency, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, announced on Saturday, November 13, during a meeting about social harms in the country that with the completion of the investigations into Yashar Soltani's case, he was 'released with a change in the security measure.' The exact charges against Yashar Soltani have not yet been announced, but the Tehran prosecutor accused him on Tuesday, November 9, of collaborating with a 'specific political current.' Simultaneously, Mohammad Ali Najafi, an advisor to the Iranian President, stated that the purpose of this accusation was to 'discredit' and 'marginalize' the issue of the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran. Following the arrest of the editor-in-chief of Memari News, his lawyer, Sadegh Kashani, announced that his client has three plaintiffs. According to Mr. Kashani, the first complaint relates to the publication of news about the wedding of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's daughter, the mayor of Tehran, in Lavasan Park. Memari News had reported that due to the wedding of the mayor's daughter in Lavasan Forest Park on July 9, access to the park was restricted for several days prior to the event. However, the Tehran municipality denied this report. Yashar Soltani's lawyer also stated that his client was sued for publishing news about the appointment of Mehdi Chamran's son, the head of the Tehran City Council, as the deputy of the Abbasabad Land Redevelopment Company. Memari News reported that in 2015, a month before the audit of the Abbasabad Redevelopment Company was reviewed in the public session of the Tehran City Council, senior municipal officials appointed Mohammad Hossein Chamran, Mehdi Chamran's son, as the deputy of architecture and urban planning for this company. Mehdi Chamran, however, denied any connection between his son's appointment and the prevention of the audit of the Abbasabad Redevelopment Company's accounts. According to Yashar Soltani's lawyer, the publication of reports regarding the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran was the third complaint filed against Mr. Soltani. Based on an image published from a letter by the General Inspection Organization of Iran on the 'Memari News' website and some other media, the Tehran municipality sold 200 properties belonging to the municipality 'at unrealistic prices' and 'very low' with '50 percent' discounts and in '60-month' installments to some managers of this institution and other individuals affiliated or close to the mayor of Tehran. Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the Attorney General of Iran, confirmed on November 27 that 'violations' occurred in the transfer of several apartments from the Tehran municipality to managers of this institution and individuals outside this organization, stating that 45 transfer contracts should be annulled and the discounts given to 150 individuals should be returned. The Attorney General also announced that the issue of the transfer of municipal properties in Tehran is being pursued in the judiciary.