Iranian judiciary denies arrests in connection with leaks website

Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Ismaili denied that there had been any arrests within the country's government and judiciary in connection with the case of the leak website Amad News.

“To date, there has been only one arrest against Roohollah Zam (manager of Amad News, a popular anti-government news channel on the messaging app Telegram),” news agencies quoted Ismaili as saying. He denied that there had been any further arrests of government officials and warned against unfounded speculation.

He urged officials to avoid mutual accusations, but Ismaili advised collaborators to “apologize and reverse the mistake they made.”

These remarks come a day after conservative MP Javad Karimi-Ghodousi tweeted that several government officials had been arrested in connection with the Amad News case, including three presidential aides.

Ghodousi claimed that one of the detainees worked in the office of Hosamuddin Ashna, the special adviser to the Iranian president, another detainee worked in Rouhani's office, a third in the office of Morteza Bank, an adviser to the Iranian president in the free trade zones, and a fourth detainee worked in the Iranian judiciary.

Ghodousi, who is close to the Iranian Supreme Leader's office, accused presidential adviser Hosamuddin Ashna of collaborating with Amad News and running a “psychological warfare room in the Iranian president's office.”

Iranian government spokesman Ali Rubaie rejected the information published by the conservative MP and stressed that he had “denied” people who had “broken the record of spreading allegations,” according to the official IRNA news agency.

He warned that such allegations “will lead to a loss of public confidence.”

Meanwhile, a statement was published on the Revolutionary Guard's website, which included a phone number and an email address and recommended that Amad News employees come forward, “show remorse and receive a reduced sentence.”

The Revolutionary Guard's statement warned against “relying on the empty promises of foreign intelligence services” when introducing media critical of the regime with the aim of “changing the fate of the peoples”.