International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: The morality police pressured the participants in the “Happy in Tehran” video during their detention to implicate Reyhaneh Taravati and Sassan Soleimani and file complaints against them, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has learned.

On May 19, 2014, six youths were arrested by the morality police and taken to the unit’s station at Vozara (Khaled Eslamboli) Street in Tehran for their role in the video. They were released two days later on bail amounts of between $10,000 and $16,600 each.

Sassan Soleimani, said to be the video’s director, was arrested on May 20 at his home. Judicial authorities set his bail at $16,600. However, when the family went to post the bail, the prison authorities would not accept it and told the family they could return next week for a visit. As of this writing, Soleimani remains held at Rajaee Shahr Prison. [He is now reported to have been released.]

The other individuals arrested in the case were Neda Motemani, Afshin Sohrabi, Bardia Moradi, Roham Shamekhi, and ”Sepideh.”

Last year Soleimani told “Zendegi Ideal” (Ideal Life) magazine that following his photo shoot for Hassan Rouhani’s presidential campaign, he was asked to suggest a color for the campaign and he picked purple, which became the campaign’s official symbol.

“During the first hours of interrogation, agents coerced the detainees to blame everything on Sassan Soleimani as the mastermind and Reyhaneh Taravati as the person who uploaded the video on YouTube,” a source told the Campaign. [Continue reading…]