Yesterday, Sunday 7 January, we published in French, Spanish and two other languages that President Hassan Rohani had ordered the arrest of his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the son of Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi. Two hours later, an Iranian media informed us that the lawyer for the former president denied that his client had been arrested.

Accordingly, we have withdrawn this headline from our site.

However 24 hours later, we are still finding it impossible to verify if this is in fact the case. Neither of the two personalities cited has appeared in public. No journalist has been able to contact them directly. Not a single Iranian authority is confirming or denying the information that is circulating on these arrests.

This morning (8 January), top rank Arab media are declaring that the former president was in fact detained at Shiraz, then placed under house arrest with the approval of Guide Ali Khameneï.

Translation
Anoosha Boralessa