Police in Sistan and Baluchistan province have arrested 32 people on “cyber offences” since March 21, the beginning of the Persian new year.
Mohammad Hosseinipour, the head of the province’s cyber police, or FATA, told Khorasan Newspaper that 20 people had been arrested in the city of Zahedan, and the rest from other towns in the province.
The arrests reflect a 50 percent rise in internet-related crimes in the region since last year. According to FATA’s figures, men committed 70 percent of the offences.
“Most offences are related to stealing money online, or hacking,” Hosseinipour said. Other charges include disseminating lies, cyber harassment, selling illegal music and distribution of obscene pictures.”
Just before the new year, Hosseinipour announced that cyber police were clamping down on “obscene websites” in Sistan and Baluchistan and that authorities had arrested 241 people in mid-March.
Cyber police in Sistan and Baluchistan also reported that they were monitoring opposition websites, which it said were widespread in the region and published information sourced from both inside and outside the country.
“At the moment, these websites are carefully traced and controlled by FATA,” Hosseinipour said.
“Some cases involve people taking revenge, such as the case of an ex-fiancé of a woman who began to disseminate immoral lies about her on Facebook. After her appeal to the police, the accused was traced and arrested. He confessed that his motivation was revenge. Other cases relate to fake websites, which pretend to sell commodities."
Arrests for posts on Facebook and other social networking sites are on the rise in Iran, and judges routinely hand down heavy sentences for online offences, including the widely reported case of eight people who were sentenced to 127 years’ imprisonment between them last year.
When it came to online shopping, Hosseinipour offered some advice to the public: “If you intend to buy goods online, you should make sure that the site has the official electronic trademark.” The advice did not extend further to include tips for keeping safe on Facebook.
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