Attack on Iranian newspaper office
After Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the then-director of Iran, was sentenced to one year in prison on November 20, 2011, she held a press conference at the Iran newspaper's office, repeating her statements in an interview with Etemad newspaper and protesting the verdict.[17][18]
On the same day, security agents from the Tehran Prosecutor's Office raided the Iran newspaper building and arrested Ali Akbar Javanfekr. The attempt to arrest him was met with resistance from some of Iran newspaper's employees, and Mosayeb Naeimi, the editor-in-chief of Al-Wefaq newspaper, and 39 journalists and employees of Iran newspaper were arrested. Abdolreza Soltani, an IRNA political correspondent who had come to the Iran newspaper office to cover the news, was beaten by the agents and his condition was reported to be critical. All of Iran newspaper's files and documents were also seized.[17][19][20]
Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Prosecutor General of Tehran, said about the arrest of Ali Akbar Javanfekr: "Following Ali Akbar Javanfekr's interview with one of the country's newspapers on Saturday and raising untrue and divisive issues, it was learned that The person in question, intends to repeat these statements by holding a press conference on Monday. According to the report received, unfortunately, despite his claim of legality, Javanfekr resisted the judicial order and the officers' actions and, by making phone calls and being present among the employees of the institution, provoked the employees and caused disruption and disorder in the newspaper's work process. After these incidents, the officers left the area on the prosecutor's order."[20]
Ali Akbar Javanfekr also said after the arrest: "The actions of these people made my colleagues at Iran Newspaper extremely angry, and the prosecutor's forces threw tear gas into the building and tried to enter. They arrested a number of Iran Newspaper journalists and took them away, and they shocked one of my colleagues with an electric shock, and now he is not in a good condition.[21]
After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad protested this arrest, Javanfekr was released.[22][23][24] [25][26] After these attacks, the Irannewspaper published a white headline in protest of Javanfekr's arrest.[27] Reporters Without Borders also condemned the closure of the Etemad newspaper and the arrest of Iran newspaper staff[28]
