Last Update

Feb. 16, 2021

Organisation

Unknown

Gender

Male

Ethnic Group

Unknown

Religoius Group

Bahá'í

Province

Tehran

Occupation

Journalist

Sentence

Unknown

Status

Released

Institution investigating

Ministry of Intelligence

Charges

Disrupting the country's economic system

Shahnam Golshani Released

Shahnam (Shahram) Golshani is the manager of the Mesghal website. According to media reports, at the time of Golshani’s arrest, Mesghal had become an authority on the value of precious metals, hard currency and other tradable goods.  However, on February 3, 2013, when then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lost control of the currency market, the site was blocked.

Shahnam (Shahram) Golshani is the manager of the Mesghal website.

According to media reports, at the time of Golshani’s arrest, Mesghal had become an authority on the value of precious metals, hard currency and other tradable goods.  However, on February 3, 2013, when then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lost control of the currency market, the site was blocked.

Two days later, it was reported that the Security Department of the Central Bank of Iran had asked Golshani to publish lower rates for hard currency than the actual market price with the aim of calming people. However, he refused to do this, and for this he was arrested. Golshani’s arrest in turn caused even more market volatility as the business community saw his arrest as a threat to businesses unwilling to obey orders from the government and the Central Bank.

The following day, the Mashregh News website, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Intelligence, reported that “Shahram G.,” referring to Golshani, who was the manager of a “site belonging to the Baha’is, which played an influential role in inflating gold and currency prices, has been arrested. By launching this site and collaborating with a number of fraudulent and profiteering money changers, Shahram G. succeeded in turning the site into an authority on gold and currency prices. In the recent economic crisis, the manager of the site was able to create volatility in the market in collusion with the dealers and make huge profits.”

The Mashragh News website claimed that Golshani was a member of the Baha’i religious minority. Likewise, in another interview with the Fars News Agency, Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of Kayhan, a hardline newspaper affiliated with Iranian conservatives, also claimed that Baha’is had played a role in the stock market volatility. In a statement three days beforehand, he said: “Baha’is, those affiliated with the Hojjatieh Society, Zionist agents and other groups were responsible for market volatility. They bought hundreds of tons of gold in an attempt to undermine the leaders of the government, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and sacred institutions.”

In 2013, news websites close to the Iranian government reported that the Courts of First Instance had issued the death penalty against Shahnam Golshani on the charge of “corruption on earth.” However, this sentence has not been confirmed by judiciary officials.

In the summer of 2013, after a long period without any news about Golshani’s legal case, it became clear that he had been released from prison on bail and fled the country illegally over the border into Turkey.

After leaving Iran, Shahnam Golshani re-launched the Mesghal website and is once again publishing information about the value of gold and currencies on Telegram, Twitter and Instagram.

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