Yavar Soltani is a Turkish Azeri civil society and social media activist who lives in Maku, West Azerbaijan province. On his Instagram page, Maku Times, Soltani publishes news stories relating to the city of Maku and Turkish Azeri activists. The majority of his work is focused on urban and social issues in the region as well as combatting racial discrimination faced by minorities in Iran. Soltani has an undergraduate degree in fluid dynamics, having previously studied at the University of Urmia. He is currently studying at the Azad University of Maku. 

Yavar Soltani was arrested on July 12, 2020 by agents from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

On July 13, 2020, Araz News reported that Soltani had criticized the placement of a statue in the main square of Maku and that he had published a post which spoke about the removal of the statue from the city square on his Instagram page. Araz News also reported that Soltani had been transferred to Maku Prison after his arrest.

In a video, which Soltani shared on the Maku Times Instagram page on July 2, 2020, he described the statue of Ferdowsi in Maku Square as a symbol of racism. In the video, he said that anti-racism and Black Lives Matter protesters in Europe and the United States had taken down and toppled statues that they said symbolized racist historical figures and systems.

In the caption of the Instagram post, Soltani wrote: “Now, the Maku City Council has removed the statue of one of the founders of racism in Iranian history, Abul-Ghasem Ferdowsi, from Ferdowsi Square, which is popularly known as 'Hafte Felke Sii.' It is not yet clear what will happen to the square, but what is clear is that the protests in recent weeks have made Iranian city officials think more than ever.”

Soltani wrote: “Ferdowsi is one of these controversial figures whose racist and anti-feminist poems have always been criticized by human rights activists, women’s rights activists and everyday citizens. Among other things, the removal of his statue from the cities of Salmas and Qazvin in recent years was in part a symbolic protest against his racist personality.”

On July 13, 2020, Keyvan Pourazim, the prosecuting judge in the case, ordered that Soltani’s arrest warrant should be revoked and issued a bail for his release. The judge also ordered that Soltani’s ban on online activity be suspended and that he be granted temporary release from detention. The bail was set at 50 million tomans.

Yavar Soltani was eventually tried in a joint case with Farid Mohammadnejad, the manager of the Yurt TV page, in Branch 101 of the Second Criminal Courts of Maku County. On August 22, 2020, Soltani was informed that he had been sentenced to one year imprisonment.

Soltani was charged with “inciting people to commit acts of violence and rallies by posting a video about racist acts on Instagram.”

Judge Ali Erfani Alamdari issued his sentence against Soltani, citing Article 512 of the Islamic Penal Codes, which was ratified in 2013, which states: “Any individual who aims to undermine the national security of the country through inciting or instigating others to engage in warfare or killing, regardless of whether or not that person commits murder or looting, will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment ranging from one to five years.”

In Soltani's indictment, three different security institutions filed legal complaints against him, including the Ministry of Intelligence, the Police Intelligence Service and the Intelligence Organization of the Revolutionary Guards.

Following Soltani’s request for an appeal against the initial ruling, Branch 13 of the Court of Appeals of West Azerbaijan province heard his case on October 19 2020. The Court of Appeals also sentenced Soltani to one year imprisonment. However, according to the verdict, of the total one year imprisonment, eight months of the sentence have been suspended for a period of two years. The remaining four months imprisonment is still enforceable against Soltani.

On December 7, 2020, Yavar Soltani was arrested after being summoned to the Department for the Enforcement of Judicial Sentences of Maku County. He was subsequently transferred to Maku Prison to serve his four month prison sentence.

Farid Mohammadnejad, who was arrested as part of this legal case, was also convicted of the same charge and sentence. He was transferred to Maku Prison on December 14, 2020, after reporting to the Department for the Enforcement of Judicial Sentences, so that he could serve his prison sentence.

Soltani was released from Maku Prison on April 3, 2021, after serving a four-month sentence. He was sent on medical leave once during his imprisonment due to the Coronavirus outbreak.