Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 22
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested 11 persons in charge of spreading offensive contents in social networks, Esmail Mohebbipour, commander of the IRGC's Sarallah Base in southern Shiraz city said.
The IRGC's Sarallah Base pursued and identified the individuals via monitoring the social networking services such as Viber, Tango, WhatsApp, Telegram and Line, Mohebbipour said, Iran's ISNA news agency reported Sept. 22.
"The persons who were arrested in southern Fars province have played active role in publishing offensive contents against the past Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini," the commander stressed.
The arrested individuals have accepted the charges, he added.
Previously Iran's Police Chief Esmail Ahmadi Moqaddam warned the public that people spreading jokes about the late Ayatollah Khomeini in social networks will be prosecuted.
Iran's Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei issued a one-month ultimatum for the government to ban applications WhatsApp, Viber and Tango, in a letter sent to Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi on Sept 20.
Mohseni Ejei criticized the contents against Ayatollah Khomeini that have been widely circulated on the Viber, Tango and WhatsApp networks in recent weeks.
Some of the contents are managed by foreign "governments hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran establishment," the Mohseni Ejei's letter reads.
The prosecutor general warned that if the Iranian ministry of Communications fails to implement the order within one month, the Judiciary itself will take necessary action.