Seventeen People Arrested for “Promoting Western Lifestyle” on Instagram Pages in Behshahr

Seventeen people were recently arrested in Behshahr for reasons related to their activity on their personal social media pages.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting Rokna News, the Iranian Cyber Police cited “promoting a western lifestyle, publishing obscene pictures and modelling ads” as the reasons for the arrests.

By order of a judge, the police erased all contents of the cited posts and replaced them with FATA’s logo. What the regime labels as “promoting a western lifestyle” has long been a source of tension between the regime and the Iranian people.

Imposing a certain lifestyle on citizens stands in blatant violation of Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which entitles everyone the right to life, liberty and security of person. Additionally, Article 12 of this declaration affirms, “One shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”

Citizen Arrested for Posting Online About Upcoming Presidential Election

Akbar Nosrati, head of the Iranian Cyber Police in West Azerbaijan province, announced the arrest of an Instagram page admin for “publishing tense information about the elections”.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting Rokna News, Nosrati stated that during the police experts’ monitoring, an Instagram page with the “tense content about the elections” that could have “disrupted public opinion” was identified and its admin was arrested.

Nosrati said the accused claimed his “illegal” act occurred since he was unaware of what the election irregularities are.

A citizen arrested for blasphemy in Gilan Province

HRANA News Agency – The Cyber Police in Gilan Province has announced that an individual in the city of Rasht has been arrested for blasphemy posted on the Internet.  Gilan’s Cyber Police Chief has also reminded all citizens that blasphemy is a crime for which there are severe penalties defined by the lawmakers.

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