Watchdog

A Zoroastrian city councilor in Iran has been suspended from his position, highlighting an emerging battle over the rights of the country's religious minorities to run for office.

Sepanta Niknam, a member of the city council in the central city of Yazd, was suspended temporarily by a branch of Iran's Administrative Court of Justice, council chief Gholamali Sefid said on October 9.

Niknam was the only non-Muslim elected to the council in May.

"We will try to make sure this verdict does not become finalized, and even if this happens, we will take other measures," Sefid told Iran's official news agency, IRNA.

Zoroastrians are followers of the ancient Iranian religion Zoroastrianism. Yazd is one of their hubs and home to thousands of followers.

The court issued the temporary suspension following a lawsuit filed by Ali Asghar Bagheri, a city-council candidate who failed to receive enough votes to secure a seat.

The verdict notes that based on the opinion of the religious scholars on the Guardians Council, members of religious minorities are prohibited from becoming members of city councils.

The Guardians Council, which oversees presidential and parliamentary elections in Iran and preapproves candidates, does not have any direct role in city-council elections.

Since Niknam's first election to the council created no issues, Sefid said, "it will be a big shock to the people and the council" if the suspension is confirmed by the court.

"It will have domestic and international political consequences and will harm the harmony between Yazd's Muslim majority and Zoroastrian minority," he added.

Ali Motahari, the deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament, has called the suspension illegal and said the verdict was issued only based on the opinion of Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Guardians Council. Motahari promised to bring the matter up in the legislature.

With reporting by AFP

The Russian Justice Ministry has warned Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that it may impose restrictions on some of the broadcaster's operations in Russia and Ukraine's annexed Crimea region in response to what Moscow claims is pressure on Russian state-funded outlets in the United States.

The ministry said in a letter dated October 9 that the operations of Current Time television, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America, fall under Article 2 of Russian law on NGOs and foreign agents, and that Russia therefore retains the right to impose restrictions on Current Time.

"The activity of your organization may be subjected to restrictions envisioned in the legislation of the Russian Federation," the statement, signed by ministry official Vladimir Titov, said.

RFE/RL's Russian Service, known as Radio Svoboda; Idel Realii, a Russian-language site run by the broadcaster's Tatar-Bashkir Service; and the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service received similar letters.

"Current Time, Radio Svoboda, the Crimean Desk of the Ukrainian Service, and Idel Realii are journalistic organizations. We trust we will be able to continue our work," RFE/RL Vice President and Editor in Chief Nenad Pejic said in a statement in response to the letter.

U.S. law enforcement agencies have been looking into the operations of at least two Russian media outlets -- the satellite TV channel RT and the news website Sputnik.

Funded by the Russian government, RT was accused in a U.S. intelligence report of being one of the primary channels through which the Kremlin sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Since then, calls have grown in Washington to force RT and Sputnik to register under a 79-year-old law initially aimed at restricting Nazi propaganda. During the Soviet era, some Russian-language media, including the newspaper Pravda and the wire agency TASS, registered as foreign agents.

Last month, RT chief editor Margarita Simonyan said U.S. officials had ordered the channel to register under the foreign-agent law. The Justice Department has repeatedly declined to comment.