Tehran: Iranian journalists – 30-year-old Niloufar Hamedi and 35-year-old Elaheh Mohammadi – have been sentenced to seven and six years jail terms respectively for their alleged collaboration with the US for covering the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following an incident related to moral policing.
The sentence was provided by a revolutionary court in Tehran on Sunday.
Nilouar 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 Elaheh 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.