The Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of the central city of Shahreza said that insulting the recently killed commander of the Qods Forces was tantamount to blasphemy, a state-run website said yesterday. Hossein Razaz Zadeh said four people were arrested in the city located in the province of Isfahan for “insulting Qasem Soleimani” on social media platforms.
“Publishing content that insults the personality of martyrs is tantamount to the crime of spreading propaganda against the state,” he said.
“In terms of the sanctity of martyrdom, it is considered blasphemy and will end in arrest and detention,” Razaz Zadeh added.
On January 4, the editor in chief of the state-run Khabar Online website was summoned by the Iranian regime’s Judiciary for using “killed” instead of “martyred” to refer to the death of Qasem Soleimani.
Reports indicate that security forces in the western city of Paveh detained a journalist identified as Mozafar Validbeigi on Saturday for not using the word “martyred” in reference to Soleimani’s death.
Qasem Soleimani was killed during a US airstrike at the Baghdad airport in the early hours of January 3.
Fearing retribution, many Iranians were forced to celebrate his death in the safety of their homes.
