May 26, 2018
The head of Iran’s chief Reformist daily, Sharq, was arrested after residents of Mashhad accused the paper of defamation over a report that mentioned “prostitution” there.
Mehdi Rahmanian was “summoned [by the courts] after a complaint by a group of residents of the Shahid Rajai neighborhood of Mashhad,” the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported, quoting the city’s deputy prosecutor, Hassan Heydari. “The newspaper had described some of the district’s women as prostitutes,” ISNA said.
Mashhad’s Khorasan daily said Rahmanian was detained overnight April 28 but freed the next day after he paid bail set at 500 million rials ($7,700 at the current black market rate).
Sharq published a report April 8 on the murder of a 6-year-old Afghan girl in the impoverished Shahid Rajai district of Mashhad. The article quoted an official from an association for children and poor people who said the district was home to several brothels and that drugs were sold there.
Khorasan said the article provoked an angry protest by residents in front of the local mosque three days later.
Heydari said the prosecution had asked Rahmanian to “take action” against the journalist and “repair” the damage caused, but no action was taken.
However, two weeks before the editor was arrested, the newspaper carried articles on the complaints of the residents of the neighborhood.