AP: A news agency in Iran says officials have detained the editor of a daily reformist newspaper after they shut it down on charge of insulting Islam. Abbas Bozorgmehr, the editor of Aseman, was taken to Evin prison.
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A news agency in Iran says officials have detained the editor of a daily reformist newspaper after they shut it down on charge of insulting Islam.
The report Thursday by the semi-official ISNA news agency said prosecutors ordered Abbas Bozorgmehr, the editor of Aseman, to Evin prison after they closed the publication.
The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the closure came over the newspaper publishing an interview in which “Islamic retaliation law” was called inhuman. That law allows victim of a crime, his relatives or the prosecutor to demand retaliation.
Aseman had published weekly for two years before becoming a daily last week.
Iran has banned newspapers and jailed journalists in the past, though such measures haven’t happened since moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office in August.
