The verdict can be appealed within 20 days, the Mizan Online justice agency said.
They have been imprisoned for more than a year in the infamous Evin prison, in Tehran, for having covered in their respective media the death in detention of Masha Amini, in September 2022. Two Iranian journalists were sentenced to prison terms. seven and six years in prison, official media announced on Sunday October 22.
Elaheh Mohammadi, 36, was sentenced to six years in prison for collaboration with the United States, five years for plotting against the country’s security and one year for propaganda against the Islamic Republic, according to the Mizan Online justice agency. Niloofar Hamedi, 31, was sentenced to seven years in prison for cooperation with the United States, five years in prison for plotting against the security of the country and one year for propaganda against the Islamic Republic, added the same source. The verdict can be appealed within 20 days, the Mizan Online justice agency said.
Accused of “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic
The two women contributed, through their work, to making public the death, on September 16, 2022, of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd arrested in Tehran by the moral police who accused her of having violated the dress code of the Islamic Republic. The death of the young woman provoked a popular movement initiated by Iranian women gathered behind the slogan “Women, life, freedom”bloodily repressed by the regime.
Imprisoned in September 2022, Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi were accused on November 8 of “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic and conspiracy against national security. On the first day of their trial in May, they explained that they had simply done their job.
Iranian justice on Tuesday sentenced Mahsa Amini’s lawyer to one year in prison for “propaganda” against the State after “spoke to foreign and local media about the case”according to his defense.