Mehdi Salehi

He was arrested in the collective arrest of Telegram channel managers close to reformists in 2017

<coverage-outsourcing id='15116'> Several managers of Telegram channels close to the Rouhani administration were arrested in March, 2017. Although the arrests were met with reactions from Hassan Rouhani, his ministers, members of parliament, personalities and reformists or justice seeking groups, and in some cases the harsh clash between government media and the judiciary-but both the judiciary and the government have kept from revealing information about the where abouts and condition of the arrested.The following week, IPA succeeded in finding the identities of 9 of the arrested individuals: Ali Ahmadnia, Saeed Naghdi, Heydar Valizadeh,Mojtaba Bagheri, Mehdi Salehi, Nima Keshvari, Sobhan Jafartash, Mohammad Javad Jamshidi, and Sayed Afrouzi. According to informed sources the arrested are in ward 2 A of Evin prison. Opinions for and against these collective arrests whose names were not revealed until a month after the arrests, has prevented the proper record keeping in this case and IPA has relied on several initial documents </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18687'> Ali Mottahari told ISNA that the minister of Intelligence should be held accountable for the arrest of 12 head of Telegram Channels close to the government, also for the manner in which Ehsan Mazandarani was arrested “in an inappropriate condition” which had, in turn, created “doubts” about the presidential elections. He emphasised that, “I request the minister of Intelligence two explain both cases in a convincing manner and enlighten us as to which agency carried out these two acts.” Mottahari, said, in the end, “If the minister of intelligence doesn’t give convincing answers we will, in that case, question and if necessary, seek his impeachment </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18691'> Omidnameh reported that the Intelligence ministry was not involved in the recent arrests. Agents of IRGC Intelligence unit made the arrests under orders from branch 2 of the Culture and Media court </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18693'> Hesamodin Ashena, Hassan Rouhani’s adviser, in several tweets under the title, “A simple plan from a tricky operation”, using offensive language, condemned the security agencies of the country, who have themselves created a Telegram channels (Omidnews) and then proceeded to arrest those who communicated with that same channel. These accusations were, also, echoed by some of the other media outlets close to Hassan Rouhani, Amad News denied these allegations. In the same period, Massoud Pezeshkan, Mohammad Sadeghi, Jafar Imanabadi, and a great number of reformists announced their opposition to these arrests. According to reports that were published months afterwards, these arrests had nothing to do with the website or channel of Amad News </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18689'> The International Federation of Journalists published a statement, condemned the arrest of Hengameh Shahidi, Morad Saghafi, Ehsan Mazandarani, and the Telegram channels activists and demanded their release expressing sadness over how the silencing of public forums has become an organizational routine for the regime in Iran </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18376'> The court hearing for the head’s of Telegram channels took place with judge Salavati presiding. In this hearing the charges against Naghdi and Bagheri were reviewed. Further hearings were held in the days that followed </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18606'> According to Mehr news, the spokesperson for the judiciary, told, at its press conference, about the heads of Telegram channels, “Until now several cases have been filed. One case has 14 individuals who were tried and sentenced, the accused have been sentenced in a range of 91 days to five years incarceration. One case had eight individuals, their trial was held, their hearing was finished and their last defense heard, but until last week, when I asked, their verdict had not been issued” </coverage-outsourcing>