In this picture released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks to a group of residents of the city of Qom, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020. Ayatollah Khamenei said “we slapped them (Americans) on the face last night” with a missile strike “but military action is not enough.” He spoke hours after the strike at military bases in Iraq used by U.S. forces. The strike was in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iran’s top military commander in Baghdad. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

One of the first indications that the crash of Ukrainian Flight 752 was not an accident was a video that went viral on the internet, showing what many believed to be something hitting the plane, it appearing to burst into flames and going straight down to the ground.

Iran ultimately confessed to “accidentally” shooting down the plane after it was clear that both Canada and the United States ha

That has sparked days of protest of Iranians angry not only about them shooting down the plane but then lying about it for three days when they knew well that they had done it.

Iran said they would be taking action as to those involved in the shoot down.

So guess what is now being reported?

That the IRGC has allegedly arrested the poor guy who took the video and exposed the truth. This was first reported by Fars, their state media.

Iran arrests the man who recorded the video showing missiles brought down Ukrainian Airlines plane. That video was first verified by @nytimes & was first public proof of the tragedy.#IranProtest2020 https://t.co/HLZkIKFBSL — Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) January 14, 2020

The man is accused of sending it to a “Saudi” news outlet, which apparently is a sin in Iran.

„Teheran sollte in der weiteren Aufarbeitung dieser schrecklichen Katastrophe Vorkehrungen treffen, damit so etwas nicht wieder passieren kann“, sagt @HeikoMaas. Teheran hat Sie gehört, Herr Maas! Als erste Konsequenz wurde der einzige Augenzeuge des Abschusses #festgenommen. https://t.co/pKmnHnnE5S — Julian Röpcke (@JulianRoepcke) January 14, 2020

⛑Can you believe this? “Iranian authorities arrested the person who videoed the moment the IRGC cruise missile hit the #UkranianPlane claiming he sent the video to a Saudi TV station”

If this poor guy didn’t document this moment Iran will never acknowledged its responsibility https://t.co/jDA1Areb45 — Mohammed Alsulami| محمد السلمي (@mohalsulami) January 14, 2020

Except there may be a couple of more things to say here.

One, it’s the state media being very public about pushing this out. One has to think that’s with purpose.

Here we would look at arresting this guy as shocking and wrong. But in Iran, there’s another purpose, to frighten and cow the populace to not do such things again, to not expose the government’s evil or suffer consequences.

But secondly, the IRGC may have gotten the wrong guy, according to reports.

I'm getting lots of calls. They have arrested the WRONG person regarding the #Flight752 In Iran. The person who is a source of the video is SAFE and I can assure you IRGC is orchestrating another lie. They killed 176 passengers on commercial plane. Thats the real story here. https://t.co/X2k0ycwMBD — 🤖Nariman (@NarimanGharib) January 14, 2020

Hold your horses. @NarimanGharib, who was originally sent the video by the source, says that to the best of his knowledge the news of his arrest is not true. https://t.co/fJANdhfGXH — Josie Ensor (@Josiensor) January 14, 2020

They also are reportedly “encouraging” the families of the victims not to talk to media.

Islamic Republic arrests the man who recorded this video of showing missiles brought down Ukrainian Airlines plane.

The regime harassing the family of the victims I talk to 3 family and they say that warning about not talking to media .#IranProtest2020 pic.twitter.com/lPNCvpCUt4 — Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 14, 2020

It’s clear they’re trying to shut down dissent and that’s not going to go over well with the Iranian people who are already in the streets over their lies.