Wednesday May 24,2006
News from Iran- Iran Emroozonline reporting from "Haditoonz" :

Mana Neyestani ( the cartoonist) have been arrested !

According to " Haditoonz" this morning (Tuesday morning May 23,2006) Mana Neyestani after meeting with Mr. Mortazavi the infamous Tehran public prosecutor was arrested . Mr. Neyestani had the chance to call his family and report about his situation but he didn't say how he has been arrested and how long he will be in detension ?

The arrest of Mana Neyestani was due to a cartoon he drew for the government owned " Iran Jom-e " newspaper which caused tension and demonstration among the Azari's ( the turkish language spoken minority ). Azari's are the 2nd largest minority in Iran and are living in all over Iran but their provinces are located in North- Wast of Iran bordered with Turkey and central Asian state of Azarbayjan .

It is needed to say that Mr. Mostafa Poormohammadi the interior minister also annouced the sudden arrest of Mana Neyestani . Due to this event "Iran " the official government newspaper was banned.

Four days after the publication of his cartoon ( A cockroach speaking in Azari saying the word " Namana" meaning what do you say ) , Mana Neyestani spoke to the media that his drawing was unintentional and asked for pardon from the Azari speaking minority.

Back ground:

On Friday May 19 , 2006 in the children section of "Iran-Jom-e" one of the most governmental and official organ of the Islamic Republic a cartoon by Mana Neyestani the cartoonist was publisand . the cartoon was showing a cocroach in response to a boy speaking in Azari saying the word " Namana" meaning "what do you say " which caused unrest among Azari's in a way that they boycotted the newspapr and at 4:00pm on Monday May 22 ,2006 they rallied by the thousands in the city of Tabriz and Zanjan and other Azari spoken province and city's .In response, the police forces used tear gas to disperse the crowd which caused clashes between demonstrators and police forces and destruction and damages to the properties along the way . They called this cartoon as an insult to Azari people.Four days after the publication on Monday May 21, Mr. Mana Neyestani apologized about the cartoon but because of protests and many other factors which included goverment official and parliamentarian to speak and demanded for reaction, Mana Neyestani was fired by the management of the newspaper and on Tuesday morning May 23,2006 just after meeting with Mr.Mortazavi the infamous Tehran public prosecutor ( One of the accused in Zahra Kazemi's beating to death in Evin prison ) was arrested and currently is detained.

End/

Visit this site to see the cartoon:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3692/481/1600/Iran.jpg

http://www.haditoons.com/news.php?news_uid=1439

Link to this news in Farsi:
http://www.iran-emrooz.net/index.php?/news2/more/8544/