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Iran Arrests Editor, Journalist Over Cartoon Mocking Khamenei

RFE/RL

   The editor in chief and a social-media administrator of Iran's
   semiofficial ILNA news agency were detained last week over a cartoon
   deemed insulting to the country's leadership.

   The cartoon, which appeared to mock Iran's highest authority, was
   reportedly removed from ILNA's Telegram channel shortly after being
   posted.

   ILNA's editor in chief, Masud Heydari, has been released on bail but
   the news agency's Telegram administrator Hamid Haghjoo remains in
   detention. It is not clear if the two have been charged.

   Tehran's Prosecutor Ali Alghasi Mehr said on April 27 that an
   investigation has been launched into the affair.

   "Immediately after the publishing of the insulting image, it was
   ordered to be removed from the channel," Alghasi Mehr was quoted as
   saying by Iranian media.

   "The [person in charge] of ILNA and the administrator of the Telegram
   channel were both arrested on the evening of [April 23]," he added.

   ILNA has denied any affiliation with the "disrespectful" cartoon while
   accusing its opponents of having faked the news agency's logo and
   falsely accused it of publishing the cartoon.

   The cartoon mocks those promoting fake treatments to ward off the
   coronavirus, including drinking camel urine and inserting violet oil in
   the anus, under the guise of Islamic medicine.

   It appeared to suggest that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
   Khamenei is supportive of such measures, depicting him as a nurse who
   is calling for silence.

   Hard hit by coronavirus

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