An Iranian court sentenced two female journalists to years in prison for their coverage of the death in custody of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini last year, state media reported on Sunday.
Amini’s death on September 16, 2022, after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of Iran’s strict dress rules for women led to mass protests across the country.
The Mizan news agency, which is affiliated with the judiciary, reported that Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi were sentenced to 13 and 12 years in prison respectively on charges including collaboration with the US government and acting against national security.
Mohammadi, 36, was given six years in prison for collaboration with the United States and Hamedi, 31, was handed a seven-year term for the same offence, said Mizan.
The two were also given five-year sentences each for the conspiracy charges and one each for propaganda, the website said, adding the sentences would be served concurrently.
Mohammadi, a reporter for Ham Mihan newspaper, and Hamedi, a photographer for Shargh newspaper, have been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since September 2022, with their trials starting in May.
The verdict against them is subject to appeal, Mizan added.
Hamedi was detained after she took a picture of Amini's parents hugging each other in a Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma and Mohammadi after she covered Amini's funeral in her Kurdish hometown Saqez, where the protests began.
The ruling follows the sentencing on Tuesday of Amini’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, to one year in prison for propaganda against the state and speaking with foreign and local media about the case.
During the months-long Amini protests, several hundred people including security forces were killed and thousands were arrested over their participation in the demonstrations.
Seven men were also hanged over their links with the “riots”— the term Iranian officials use to describe the protests.
Last week, Shargh published an open letter in which over 200 Iran journalists and writers have demanded the release of Hamedi and Mohammadi.
The sentences were announced a week after the European Union parliament awarded its annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Amini and the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran.
