Iran MP: Flogging, three years in prison for false information on coronavirus

Iran will sentence anyone who spreads false information about coronavirus to flogging and up to three years in prison, a member of the Iranian parliament’s legal and judicial committee said on Wednesday.

The sentencing is based “on the Islamic penal code,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Hassan Norouzi as saying.

Tehran has already arrested 24 people for “spreading rumors” online about the coronavirus, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported, citing Cyber Police Chief Vahid Majid.

Official figures on death and infection with the COVID-19, another name for coronavirus, stand at 19 dead and 139 infected, according to Health Ministry Spokesman Kianush Jahanpur.

The cyber police chief also said 118 people have been summoned to the police for “spreading rumors and false information” about coronavirus, Majid said.

They were given a warning and later released after “expressing regret,” he added.