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Iranwire – Five bloggers residing in the southern Iranian city of Zarand have been summoned to the local General and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office on charges of “publishing inappropriate videos and images on social media,” according to media reports.
Local prosecutor Reza Yaqoubi said the office had opened a case against the five individuals after receiving information about their activities from the Moral Security Police, the Farda-e-Kerman website reported on January 14.
Yaqoubi accused the bloggers of posting “images that violate morals and public decency on social media,” without elaborating.
The identities of the accused were not undisclosed.
Farda-e-Kerman also reported that a “social media monitoring task force” has been established within the Zarand prosecutor’s office to “control social media and particularly to monitor the conduct of election candidates.”
Iranians will be called to polling stations on March 1 to choose among candidates running for seats in the parliament and Assembly of Experts.
A growing number of Iranians have been summoned, arrested and prosecuted in recent days for criticizing the authorities for failing to provide security at a memorial ceremony earlier this month for Qassem Soleimani, a top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.
Nearly 100 people were killed in twin bombings targeting the event in the southeastern city of Kerman on January 3. The Sunni extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility.
Following the attack, Attorney-General Mohammad Movahedi Azad ordered prosecutors to take “decisive action” against media and social media users publishing “false, illegal and criminal content.”
