Hamed Talebi is a deputy editor-in-chief and an editor at the Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Talebi was also the manager of the Qichi, literally Scissors, Telegram channel, which in 2016, published images of a parliamentary candidate for the province of Isfahan not wearing her legally mandatory hijab head covering.

Talebi was arrested for the first time on the evening of May 10, 2016, because he had published photographs of Minoo Khaleghi without her veil, a candidate from Isfahan for the 2016 parliamentary elections. Talebi was at that time responsible for the management and administration of the Qichi Telegram channel.

After six days of temporary detention, Talebi was released from Evin Prison on the night of May 15, 2016. The news of his release was published by Abdolreza Davari, a close associate of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran from 2005-2013.

No legal charges were filed against Talebi in connection with this arrest.

Hamed Talebi was arrested for a second time on June 27, 2017. The news of his arrest was first published by Yasser Jabraili, the Fars News Agency's assistant director of research, on his personal Telegram channel. In the post, Jabraili stated: “The Ministry of Intelligence has summoned and apparently arrested Hamed Talebi, an editor at the Fars News Agency, for unknown reasons.”

According to Yasser Jabraili, Talebi had been arrested because he had chanted insults about Iran's current president, Hassan Rouhani, during that year’s Quds Day demonstrations, an annual event held on the last Friday of the Ramadan fasting month, during which demonstrations take place in Iran in support of Palestine and in opposition to Zionism and Israel.

Jabraili wrote: “Earlier AmadNews, the pro-government and counter-revolutionary Telegram channel falsely accused [Hamed] Talebi of shouting chants against the President of Iran [Hassan Rouhani] during the Quds Day march. Distinguished members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly must ask Mr. [Seyyed Mahmoud] Alavi [the current Minister of Intelligence], firstly, what steps have been taken to deal with mud-slinging Telegram channels, such as AmadNews, and secondly, by what logic has the Ministry of Intelligence used such media outlets as a source of information and legal evidence?”

After the news of Hamed Talebi’s arrest was published, the Asr Iran news website also reported that Ali Akbari, another editor at the Fars News Agency had been summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence.

Following the publication of the news that Ali Akbari and Hamed Talebi had been arrested, Abdullah Ramezanzadeh, a spokesman for the former President of Iran Mohammad Khatami, posted a tweet in which he criticized the arrest of Iranian dissidents, saying: “Arresting someone who probably won’t try to flee the country, without summoning them to the prosecutor’s office or without assigning a prosecutor to investigate the case, does not make any logical sense.”

Despite the widespread publication of the news of Akbari and Talebi’s arrest, on June 29, 2017, Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary, denied their arrest, saying: “No journalists and no one with either of the aforementioned names [Ali Akbari and Hamed Talebi] have been arrested in the past few days, the news of their arrest is false.”

Mohseni Ejei is the most senior official who has denied Ali Akbari and Hamed Talebi’s arrest. No further information has been released on the nature of the legal complaint against Akbari and Talebi, their arrest or their subsequent release. However, it is known that Hamed Talebi has been released.