Agents from the Kerman Province Intelligence Department arrested Hassan Abbasi, a journalist and the editor-in-chief of the banned Ashkan News website.
According to a report received by the Defending Free Flow of Information (DeFFI), on Sunday, August 31, 2025, intelligence agents in Kerman entered Hassan Abbasi’s home without presenting a judicial warrant, arrested the journalist with violence, and verbally insulted his family members. The agents searched Abbasi’s house, damaged household items, and confiscated his mobile phone.
Hassan Abbasi is a journalist and the editor-in-chief of the Ashkan News website, which was filtered and made inaccessible to the public on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, by order of the “Committee for Determining Instances of Criminal Content” after five years of operation.
According to DeFFI’s report, at least 95 Iranian journalists and media outlets faced judicial and security actions in the first six months of 2025. During this period, at least 46 new judicial cases were filed against journalists and media, at least six journalists experienced temporary detention, and in the trials held, Iranian journalists were collectively sentenced to 22 years and three months in prison and fined over 50 million tomans.