Iranian officials on Thursday raided a reformist newspaper just days after its launch, banning the outlet and arresting its managing editor over published comments that described Islam’s eye-for-an-eye vengeance doctrines as “inhumane.” Abbas Bozorgmehr had already been forced to walk back his statements – the editor had declared to Iranian media that the description was an “unintentional mistake” – but he was nonetheless arrested and dispatched to Iran’s notorious Evin prison.

“Aseman newspaper has been banned for publishing an article that insults Islam’s sacred beliefs and articles against Islamic regulations,” the office of Tehran’s prosecutor said on its website. “In an article run by the newspaper on Tuesday, it called ‘qesas’ inhumane,” it added in reference to the Islamic law of vengeance.

Mohammadreza Baqerzadeh, a cleric at a religious think tank, blamed the approach of President Hassan Rouhani’s reputedly moderate administration for such “attacks” on the law. “Such comments and remarks made by those who do not belive in Islamic teachings are caused by the formation of a cultural atmosphere of the (new) government,” Baqerzadeh told Fars news agency.

Reporting on the incident has been tangled, with outlets arguably seeking to reconcile the substance of the story with months of generous media coverage hailing the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as a sign of impending reforms. Describing the controversy, the Associated Press made a point of emphasizing that while “Iran has banned newspapers and jailed journalists in the past… such measures haven’t happened since moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office in August.” In addition to appearing wrong – Iran’s reformist Bahar daily was banned by authorities last August, and the reformist Hamihan was shuttered shortly thereafter – it is also difficult to align the statement with the rest of the article.

“Whenever a government is elected to open up and promote democracy, the judiciary will crack down and restrict the observation of human rights, freedom of the press and so on,” said Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, the former head of Iran’s now-closed journalists’ association, who was in line to lead the Neshat newspaper. “When I wanted to open my newspaper, one judiciary official said the poisonous snakes were again crawling out of their holes,” he said, in reference to the reformist journalists.

[Photo: Lenziran Newsvideo / YouTube]