On Sunday, June 9, 2024, just hours before the official announcement of the approved presidential candidates, the judiciary of the Islamic Republic summoned at least five journalists and media activists or enforced issued verdicts against them.
On this day, Yashar Soltani, the manager of the Eskan News website, and Saba Azarpeik, a media activist, were arrested to serve their prison sentences. Ali Akbar Raefipour, a media and political activist, was summoned to the Tehran prosecutor’s office. Vahid Ashtari, a pro-Islamic Republic media activist, and Sadra Mohaghegh, a journalist, reported that their conviction cases had been referred to the execution branch.
The common factor among these five journalists and media activists who were judicially prosecuted on Sunday was their exposure of reports regarding mismanagement or financial corruption by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and his associates or their critical tweets about this approved presidential candidate.
The judicial prosecution of these media activists raised public suspicions about the judiciary’s intervention in favor of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Hamid Rasaei, a conservative representative from Tehran in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, referred to the judicial and security actions against media activists critical of Ghalibaf during a public session on Tuesday, June 11. He stated: “These days, with the start of the election campaigns, several virtual activists have been suddenly arrested, and several others have been summoned. The commonality among all of them is that they criticized one person. The question is, if they had cases, why were they not arrested earlier? Why were they arrested or summoned as soon as the presidential election campaigns began, and some were told that if they didn’t talk about so-and-so, there would be no trouble for them?”
However, on June 12, the judiciary’s media center, Mizan, reacted to the criticisms regarding the judiciary’s intervention in favor of Ghalibaf. In a statement, it denied any “arbitrary and factional behavior by the judiciary” and emphasized the independence of this institution.
Simultaneously, on Thursday, June 13, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, in a television program, claimed in response to a question about the judicial and security actions against journalists and media activists critical of him, that he had not filed any complaints against any media or journalist and that the prosecutions were initiated by the public prosecutor (Madayi Omoum).
Investigations by the Defending Free Flow of Information (DeFFI) reveal that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and his associates have filed complaints against at least eight media outlets, journalists, or media activists so far. These include Arman Emrooz newspaper, Khoradnews website, the manager of Didban Iran website, Yashar Soltani, Sadra Mohaghegh, Vahid Ashtari, Saba Azarpeik, and Hadi Heidari, all of whom faced judicial prosecution following critical reports or tweets about Ghalibaf.
Ghalibaf’s claim on IRIB about not suing media and journalists immediately sparked reactions from lawyers, journalists, and media activists.
Ali Mojtahedzadeh, a lawyer, tweeted on his account that in a case where he represented the defendants, Ghalibaf had simultaneously filed personal complaints against several journalists and media outlets.
Yashar Soltani’s Telegram channel, managed by admins after his arrest, also published a court order showing that Ghalibaf had previously filed defamation and misinformation complaints against Yashar Soltani, Sadra Mohaghegh, and Vahid Ashtari.
Sadra Mohaghegh also tweeted, calling Ghalibaf’s claim a lie and stating that he had previously been fined eight million Tomans following a complaint by this government official. In another part of his thread, confirming the court order published on Yashar Soltani’s Telegram channel, he wrote: “In that case, Ghalibaf had filed a complaint against me, Yashar Soltani, and Vahid Ashtari. On the morning of June 9 – when the qualification approval news came out in the evening – I received a message that the case was re-registered in the branch. I was puzzled about what was going on. But when Yashar was arrested at noon, the reason became clear.”
Vahid Ashtari, a pro-Islamic Republic media activist who had reported on his conviction case being sent to the execution branch on Sunday, also released a video on his account, stating: “Until yesterday, I had no final judgment case. Yesterday, I learned by chance that all the pending cases had apparently been strangely transferred to Branch 14 of the Court of Appeal without notifying me.” He then questioned: “Isn’t it thought-provoking to synchronize the judiciary’s calendar with the election calendar? It seems like everything is being sacrificed to put a favorite in the seat.”
Vahid Ashtari, a principled media activist, former head of the Basij at Tehran University, and a member of a group called “Justice Seekers,” was sentenced by the Revolutionary Court for exposing the trip of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s family members to Turkey for shopping for baby items, an incident that later became known in the media and social networks as “Sisminigate.”
Hadi Heidari, a cartoonist and media activist, also tweeted, refuting Ghalibaf’s claim of not suing media and journalists. He wrote: “Mr. Ghalibaf! It hasn’t even been four years since your complaint against me solely for drawing your portrait on the cover of Sazandegi newspaper! It seems you have forgotten!”
Saeid Seif, the manager of Didban Iran website, also reacted to Ghalibaf’s claim by publishing a court order on his Twitter account, revealing that Ghalibaf had filed a complaint against him.
Additionally, Ata Hafezi, through several tweets about the case leading to his wife Saba Azarpeik’s conviction, rejected Ghalibaf’s claim of not suing media and journalists. Addressing Ghalibaf, he wrote that Saba Azarpeik, 10 days after her court session, which lasted “six hours,” lost her fetus due to “pressure on a pregnant mother.”
Hafezi’s repeated mention of Ghalibaf is due to the complaint filed by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Seyed Mohsen Dehnavi, a member of the presidium of the 11th parliament, Zahra Sheikhi, an 11th parliament member, and two other plaintiffs (Alireza Razm Hosseini, Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade in Hassan Rouhani’s government) against Saba Azarpeik in the case leading to her conviction.
On Sunday, June 9, 2024, the Guardian Council, with widespread disqualification of candidates for the 14th presidential election, approved the qualifications of six political figures of the Islamic Republic from among about 80 registered candidates. The approved candidates by the Guardian Council were Saeed Jalili, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Masoud Pezeshkian, Alireza Zakani, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, and Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi.
With the start of presidential election campaigns in Iran, a new wave of judicial and security actions against media, journalists, and media activists began. This wave, accompanied by the issuance of a threatening directive by the Press Supervisory Board of Iran, resulted in the formation of judicial cases against several media outlets and some media activists and journalists experiencing security and judicial confrontations.