Iranian authorities have released two women journalists after 16 months in prison for covering the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.
On Sunday, January 14, 30-year-old Niloufar Hamedi and 35-year-old Elaheh Mohammadi were released after posting a bail of 10 billion tomans, Iran News Agency (IRNA) reported.
On October 22, Hamedi and Mohammadi were sentenced to 13 and 12 years in prison respectively.
They were sentenced to seven and six years each respectively for collaborating with the hostile US government, five years for acting against national security, and one year for propaganda against the system.
Hamedi who worked at Shargh newspaper was detained on September 20 after visiting the hospital where Amini had spent three days in a coma before her death. Hamedi had taken a picture of Amini’s parents embracing their daughter.
For Mohammadi, she covered Amini’s funeral in the Kurdish city of Saqqaz, her hometown, where the protests began.
Mahsa Amini died on September 16, 2022, after being arrested in Tehran on charges of violating the strict dress code imposed on women in the Islamic Republic.
Amini’s death sparked nationwide protests often referred to as the “Women, Life, and Freedom” protests that swept Iran for months, only subsiding in January.