Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, widely considered the front-runner in Iran's June 28 presidential election, has come under fire after boasting about his free-speech credentials.
During a live television appearance on June 10, Qalibaf claimed that he had protected whistleblowers and journalists in his role as the speaker of parliament.
But reporters quickly called out the 62-year-old conservative politician, who has been embroiled in a series of corruption scandals.
Qalibaf has filed lawsuits against several journalists and media outlets who published critical articles about him in the past. Some of the reporters have landed in jail.
The authorities have waged a brutal crackdown on dissent amid rising anti-government sentiment in recent years, arresting and jailing scores of journalists, activists, filmmakers, and academics.
'You Sued Me'
During his television interview, Qalibaf was asked if he would tolerate criticism if he became president.
Qalibaf responded by pointing out that the parliament, under his speakership, had a law protecting whistleblowers who expose corruption. If elected president, he said, he would enact the legislation.
His comments triggered a torrent of criticism on social media.
Qalibaf in 2021 sued Hadi Heidari, whose cartoon appeared in an article in the reformist Sazandegi newspaper criticizing the parliament speaker.
"It hasn't even been four years since you sued me," Heidari said in a June 11 post on Instagram. "Thankfully, we're still alive and our historical memory hasn't been wiped out."
Reformist political commentator Ali Qolizadeh on X listed Qalibaf's corruption scandals and said his record "can be summarized in two words: crackdown and corruption."
A former police chief and air-force commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Qalibaf has publicly boasted of his active role in suppressing student protests in 1999 and 2003, and after the contested presidential election in 2009.
'Went To Prison'
Reporters also highlighted that Yashar Soltani, a prominent whistleblower and investigative journalist, was arrested and jailed after he was sued by Qalibaf.
SEE ALSO: Iran's 'Highly Engineered' Race For Presidency Dominated By Hard-LinersSoltani was handed a five-year prison sentence in 2019 for writing a series of exposés alleging massive corruption in land deals linked to Qalibaf when he was Tehran mayor.
At the time, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) slammed the "unacceptable" ruling and demanded Soltani's release. He was later released on bail.
In March, Soltani linked Tehran mayor and presidential hopeful Alireza Zakani to a controversial project to build a mosque in a popular park in the Iranian capital.
The authorities arrested Soltani on June 9 to serve a one-year prison sentence in a different case. He was jailed just hours before Qalibaf and Zakani were announced as two of the six candidates approved to run in the presidential election.
Some Iranian journalists linked Soltani's imprisonment to Qalibaf and Zakani's candidacies.
"Yashar Soltani went to prison instead of Qalibaf and Zakani so that their path to [the presidency] is hassle-free," Yaghma Fashkhami, an independent journalist, wrote on X.
Qalibaf and Zakani have not commented on the allegation.
Iran has consistently ranked as one of worst countries in the world for transparency and freedom of expression.
Reporters Without Borders rated Iran 176th out of 180 states in its 2024 free-speech index, describing it as "one of the world's most repressive countries in terms of press freedom."