Two arrested for publishing caricatures of Iranian regime officials
Saturday, 04 June 2016/NCRI – National Council of Resistance of Iran
The Iranian regime’s Cyber Police (FATA) in Fars province, southern Iran, have arrested two young Iranians for publishing cartoons of the regime officials, state media reported. The state-run Jam News website on June 1 reported that the repressive Cyber Police in the city of Fasa in recent days arrested two people, aged 30 and 31, for publishing cartoons of the regime officials in the cyberspace. This site quoted Ali Sheybanian, Fasa’s police chief, as saying, “These two individuals intended to disturb public opinion and sow discord among the population by publishing caricatures of the authorities and offensive texts in cyberspace.”Last week a police commander of the regime in Isfahan, central Iran, announced that the Cyber Police (FATA) had arrested a 15-year-old boy who had aimed to launch a channel in virtual social networks. Jahangir Karimi announced: “After the final investigation, the 15-year-old teenager from Isfahan was identified quickly and summoned to the police.”
Karimi’s remarks were reported on May 26 by the website of the official state broadcaster IRIB. The Iranian regime’s Cyber Police (FATA) are responsible for monitoring cyber activities. Their most notorious case was that of blogger Sattar Beheshti who was killed under torture while in the regime’s custody in November 2012. Last month, the regime’s repressive Cyber Police announced that they had arrested two young webloggers in Rasht and Roudbar, northern Iran, charging them with “computer crimes.”The head of the FATA police in Gilan Province, Colonel Iraj Mohammadkhani, announced the arrests on May 3, adding that “[illegal] production, distribution and access to any data, software or any type of electronic devices are regarded as computer crimes and anyone committing such acts will be sentenced from 91 days to one year of imprisonment, or will have to pay a fine of five million to 20 million Rials (U.S. $166 to $662), or both.”As recently as March 2016, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Iran is still one of the world’s five biggest prisons for media personnel and is ranked 173rd out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) last month said: “Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are non-existent in Iran under the mullahs’ regime. Not only does the regime severely clamp down on journalists for reporting on subjects considered sensitive by the mullahs, it even goes so far as arresting and torturing to death dissident bloggers such as Sattar Beheshti.”
“The regime’s draconian measures against news organizations have become more aggressive since Hassan Rouhani took office as President in 2013. Several international human rights organizations have attested to this reality,” Mr. Gobadi added. Iran’s fundamentalist regime this week announced that it had set a one-year deadline for international social media, in particular Telegram, to hand over data on their Iranian users. The official state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday that the decision was taken on Saturday, May 28, at a session of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, a committee on the use of cyberspace headed by the mullahs’ President Hassan Rouhani that serves as the regime’s IT regulator.
Another 70 people arrested in Iran for attending mixed-gender party in restaurant
Saturday, 04 June 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran
NCRI – The mullahs’ regime on Thursday arrested more than 70 young men and women for taking part in a mixed-gender party at a restaurant in Tehran, the Iranian regime’s state media reported on Friday. The youths were arrested by the regime’s police during a raid on a restaurant in the Iranian capital’s northern Farahzad district, the state-run ILNA news agency reported. Earlier this week, the Iranian regime’s suppressive state security forces (police) in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, raided a mixed-gender party, arresting 62 people and transferring them to prison, according to state media. The state-run Shahrvand daily wrote on June 2 that 23 men and 39 women, who were caught dancing and partying, were arrested in the raid which was carried out on Sunday, May 29. Similar raids have been carried out in Iran in recent days.More than two dozen young Iranian men and women were arrested last weekend by the mullahs’ regime for participating in a mixed-gender party in Mashhad, north-east Iran.
The 29 youngsters were rounded up by the regime’s police at a party on the evening of May 28 at a villa near the Danesh Junction in Mashhad. The state-run Rokna news agency reported that altogether 15 young men and 14 young women were arrested at the party and were taken to the regime’s court in District 6 of Mashhad on Sunday to face prosecution.
Some 35 young men and women were flogged last week for taking part in a mixed-gender party after their graduation ceremony near Qazvin, some 140 kilometers northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran, the regime’s Prosecutor in the city said on May 26.Ismaeil Sadeqi Niaraki, a notorious mullah, said a special court session was held after all the young men and women at the party were rounded up, the Mizan news agency, affiliated to the fundamentalist regime’s judiciary, reported on May 26. “After we received information that a large number of men and women were mingling in a villa in the suburbs of Qazvin … all the participants at the party were arrested,” he said. Niaraki added that the following morning every one of those detained received 99 lashes as punishment by the so-called ‘Morality Police.’According to Niaraki, given the social significance of mixed-gender partying, “this once again required a firm response by the judiciary in quickly reviewing and implementing the law.” “Thanks God that the police questioning, investigation, court hearing, verdict and implementation of the punishment all took place in less than 24 hours,” Niaraki added. The regime’s prosecutor claimed that the judiciary would not tolerate the actions of “law-breakers who use excuses such as freedom and having fun in birthday parties and graduation ceremonies.”He warned the youths that they should be careful about their conduct “since being arrested in mixed-gender parties and receiving sentences is a crime and would create problems for their future education and employment.”Last month, the Iranian regime’s paramilitary Basij in north-eastern Iran broke up two mixed-gender parties within 72 hours, detaining 70 people. The head of the fundamentalist Basij in Nishapur precinct, Ali-Akbar Hosseini, announced that his forces were alerted to a so-called “obscene party” in the city. During the raid, 14 boys and 14 girls were arrested and transferred to a local police station.A second party was raided on May 20, leading to the arrest of over 40 participants, Hosseini told the state-run Fars news agency on May 21.