TEHRAN, Mar. 08 (MNA) – The Judiciary spokesman has said ban on publishing image of former president has several ‘legal and official’ bases in Supreme National Security Council and falls to the jurisdiction of Tehran Attorney-General.

Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei was reacting to President Rouhani’s speech in his press conference on Sunday about the ban on the image of former president and the head of two consecutive Reformist government. Mr. Rouhani claimed that the ban suffered the lack of ‘constitutional basis’ and that the Supreme National Security Council had not had any such mandate.

“Mr. President has, for the most probability, had not seen the official SNSC act on the ban; all the media outlets and print media as well had received a copy of the ban on publishing the image of the former president of the Reformist government.

The decision is a part of 298th SNSC enactment; according to the act, general policies on news and media is prepared and drafted by the secretariat of the Council and a workgroup consisting of members from different government bodies will function as the policy-making body,” he told reporters on Monday. “The workgroup had several decisions in the last and present government, which included a ban on the important political figures with significant role in the street riots of the post-2009 presidential elections in June, which included also former president. There is also an official ban on any news item whatsoever featuring former Reformist president,” he added.

“A second legal basis, apart from the SNSC decisions, is provided by Tehran’s Attorney-General mandate who, according to his jurisdiction, has issued a directive extending the ban, which is still effective as of present and should be implemented as well,” Ejei emphasized.

By Mehr News Agency