An Iranian court has reduced the prison sentences of two female journalists accused of collaborating with the United States, their respective lawyers told two reformist newspapers on Sunday (11/8).
Elaheh Mohammadi, 37, and Niloufar Hamedi, 31, were released on bail after more than a year in Tehran's Evin prison for their coverage of the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini that sparked nationwide protests.
In January, Iran's judiciary said it had launched new legal proceedings against the two women for posing without their headscarves after they were released that month.
Two separate appeals courts in Tehran have ruled to acquit the women of charges of collaborating with the United States, the lawyers were quoted as saying by the daily. Shargh and daily Ham Mihan.
Initially, Mohammadi was sentenced to six years in prison while Hamedi was sentenced to seven years, the court said.
The two were also each sentenced to five years in prison for collusion and conspiracy against state security and one year in prison for propaganda against the Islamic Republic.
Lawyers said the sentences were upheld by an appeals court and would be served concurrently, but they hoped the two journalists would be freed under an amnesty announced last year by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Considering that the other two charges meet all the requirements of the 2023 amnesty directive, we hope that Elaheh Mohammadi will be pardoned, and the case will be closed by issuing a stay of execution order,” Mohammadi’s lawyer, Shahab Mirlohi, told the newspaper. Ham Mihan.
Hamedi's lawyer issued a similar statement.
Hamedi, daily photographer Sharghwas arrested less than a week after Amini's death after posting photos of the young woman's grieving family on social media.
Reporter Ham MihanMohammadi, was arrested after going to Amini's hometown of Saqez, in Iran's western Kurdistan province, to cover his funeral which turned into a demonstration.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, was arrested for allegedly violating strict dress codes for women, which were imposed shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Following his death, months of protests rocked Iran, with hundreds of people, including dozens of security personnel, killed in the unrest, and thousands of demonstrators arrested.
Nine people were executed in cases related to the protests that Iranian authorities generally called “foreign-fueled unrest.” (about/after)
