Yashar Soltani

<p>He is one of the admins of Memari News website. he was arrested for publishing documents which some media consider to be the evidence for the corruption of municipality officials and some members of the city council.</p>

<coverage-outsourcing id='9292'> His website, Memari News, was blocked after publishing the case of “Astronomical Real Estates” </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9295'> The General Inspectorate Office published a statement asking the media to refrain “from any speculations”. The statement continues that the investigations are not finished yet, and “after the investigations are concluded, in case any malice or criminal activity has been proven, a report will be produced and delivered to concerned authorities” </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9856'> According to Saham, 40 student associations from different universities demanded his freedom </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9294'> Tehran Media, a website close to Tehran municipality, published the “announcement by the municipality speaker’s channel”. The announcement states: “Tehran municipality has not demanded any arrests regarding this case”, but the announcement did not deny the main reason for the lawsuit </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9291'> According to “Fars”, due to the lawsuit brought by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, mayor of Tehran and Mehdi Chamran, chairman of Tehran’s city council he appeared in branch 4 of Culture and Media Court, presided by Investigator Mardakhani. But since he was unable to pay the 200 million toman bail, he was taken into custody. His lawyer, Mr. Kashani told Fars: “The first lawsuit is for publishing the report of the wedding of Ghalibaf’s daughter in Lavizan park, the second is for publishing a report about the activities of Mr.Chamran’s son in the Abbas Abad Land Renovation company, and the third lawsuit is brought by Mr.Ghalibaf for publishing the list of property transfers” </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9293'> Nazar News website which had published an interview with him about the “Astronomical Real Estate” case and also the pressures, threats, and offers of bribe, removed some parts of it “due to his arrest”. In the interview he describes in details of the transference of those properties </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9297'> Human Rights in Iran website reported that despite providing the 200 million tomans bail, he was not released because the court has increased his bail amount </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9290'> Iran Wire reported that the arrests of Sadra Mohaghegh and Yashar Soltani were probably due to them exposing the “Astronomical Real Estates” case. The case in which the two reporters were the whistleblowers, Tehran municipality and several members of Tehran city council were accused of transferring some properties to government officials for half their price </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9356'> The Committee to Support Journalists published a statement demanding the immediate release of Sadra Mohaghegh and Yashar Soltani </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9398'> Memari News lawyers announced that due to the new charges (“publishing lies” changed to “gathering classified information with intent to undermine national security”), the 200 million toman bail was not accepted and Mr.Soltani was returned to Evin Prison </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9400'> ISNA published a report on Tehran’s city council session on Memari News. Accoding to the report, some members of the city council wanted a softer approach regarding Yashar Soltani, and others were in favor of a more severe action against him </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9396'> According to Mehr, the chairman of the deciding workgroup on criminal content said that whenever the judge in charge of the case of the admin of Memari News website decides, the website will be unblocked </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='10376'> According to Mehr, Ahmad Masjed Jamei, member of Tehran city council said that in his previous comments he has asked Yashar Soltani’s plaintiffs that now that the truth of the case has been revealed, they ought to drop their lawsuit </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9806'> According to Harana, Massir Online has reported that one of his lawyers has been summoned to culture and media court for his interview with Fars and providing information about the case </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9813'> According to Iran Khabar, Ali Motahari expressed his opposition to the continuation of Soltani’s arrest and said that due to the fact that the 200 million toman bail has been paid and he was not released, “the minister of judiciary must be questioned, and if necessary, further steps must be taken by the congress” </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9918'> According to Iran Wire, Hassan Abbasi, a radical principlist and Saeed Ziba Kalam, a reformist political activist and some members of the student Basij of several universities were among the political figures and activists who visited Yashar Hosseini’s house and objected to the continued incarceration of this journalist </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9770'> Over 700 journalists and reporters demanded his freedom via a letter </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9960'> After Abolfazl Ghenaati who was rumored to had said that the sister of the whistleblower of the real estate deal “must be given to ISIS for a week”, denied ever saying such thing, Khabar Online website released the audio file of his quote </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='10185'> Congressman Farid Mousavi told ILNA that during the meeting between the Tehran representatives in congress and the mayor and his deputies, Ghalibaf has said that “neither him nor Tehran municipality have brought any lawsuits against Yashar Soltani regarding the Tehran municipality’s property transfer report” </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9743'> According to Mehr, the attorney general of Tehran announced that Yashar Soltani has accepted that he has published the report. He also stated that due to the classified nature of the report which was conveyed by the General Inspectorate Office to Mr. Soltani and some members of the city council, its publication was “illegal” and “with malicious intent”. Attorney general announced that Mr. Hakimipour, a member of city council, was the source of Yashar Soltani’s report </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9771'> Etemad reported that according to Mr. Hakimipour, the letter he gave to Yashar Soltani did not have a classified stamp on it. He also said that he has offered the necessary details to the court </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9969'> In a National TV interview, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, Iran’s Attorney General confirmed the violations occurred during the property transfers in municipality and said due to “discounts surpassing the legal amount” and “transfer of property with special discount over the legally specified amount” has led to nullification of 36 of these transfers and the Judiciary has asked the municipality to correct and adjust the discounts in future transfers </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9852'> In a letter to the chief of Judiciary, 14 members of the city council announced that they have no complaint against Mr. Soltani and requested his release. Ahmad Masjed Jamei, Ali Saberi, Mohammad Haghani, AbdolHossein Mokhtabad, Ahmad Donyamali, Mohsen Sarkhoo, Rahmatollah Hafezi, Fatemeh Daneshvar, Esmaeel Dousti, Mohammad Mehdi Tondgooyan, Gholamreza Ansari, Mohammad Salari, Valiollah Shojapourian, and Ahmad Karimipour were the signatories of this letter </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9917'> Gholam Reza Ansari told ILNA in an interview: “First of all, keeping Yashar Soltani in prison is not right. The duty of the media is to inform. He has published a document that he received from someone else, in an ordinary envelope and without the classified information stamp or serial number, so keeping him under arrest is unlawful” </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='9916'> Abbas Abdi published an article in Etemad newspaper issue 3663, in which he stated that the arrest made based on the charge of publishing classified information is unjustifiable </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='10412'> The Press Fair started without the presence of Memari News. According to Mehran Abbasi Anaraki interview with IRNA, the culture and media court has asked the deputy of press for the ministry of Islamic Guidance that due to the pending case of Memari News's editor in chief, the Fair should refuse to give this website a booth </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='10073'> Mr. Jafari Dolat Abadi, attorney general of Tehran mentioned Yashar Soltani and said the Astronomical Real Estate case “was planned in a few days…..and it was brought up as a counter to astronomical wages” and “these individuals thought they could rearrange the council’s directing board.” He also stated that “regarding the judicial investigations, the principle is classification” and “in our current judicial procedures, judges never put a classified stamp under the transcript of an investigation session” </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='10104'> According to the attorney general of Tehran, he was released on bail </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='10167'> Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesman for the Judiciary said the investigation on the case of Tehran municipality’s property transfer is ongoing and Yashar Soltani’s charge is not exposing corruption, but “publishing classified information” </coverage-outsourcing>