The Tehran Court of Appeals has sentenced Elaheh Mohammadi, a journalist for Ham-Mihan newspaper, and Niloufar Hamadi, a journalist for Shargh newspaper, to a total of 12 years in prison in connection with their report on “Mahsa (Jina) Amini.”
According to the lawyers of Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloufar Hamadi, each journalist was sentenced to five years for “conspiracy and collusion with the intent to act against national security” and one year for “propaganda against the regime.” Under Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, five years of the sentence issued against them is enforceable.
Both journalists were acquitted of the charge of “collaboration with a hostile government”. In the initial trial, Niloufar Hamadi and Elaheh Mohammadi were sentenced to seven and six years in prison, respectively, for this charge.
According to Parto Borhanpour and Hojjat Kermani, lawyers for Niloufar Hamadi, and Shahab-Din Mir Louhi, lawyer for Elaheh Mohammadi, “given that the two remaining charges fall under the full criteria of the amnesty directive of 2022, and are not subject to any of the exceptions of the mentioned amnesty directive, the case of these two journalists should be declared closed.”
However, there is a possibility that the judiciary may proceed with executing the prison sentences against Niloufar Hamadi and Elaheh Mohammadi without considering the amnesty directive issued in February 2023; similar to the action taken in February 2024 in the case of Rouhollah Nakhaei, a journalist imprisoned in Evin Prison, when his prison sentence was enforced.
Elaheh Mohammadi, a journalist for Ham-Mihan, and Niloufar Hamadi, a journalist for Shargh, had published reports related to the circumstances surrounding the arrest and death of “Mahsa (Jina) Amini” while in custody of the morality police in Tehran. Security forces arrested the two journalists following the publication of these reports. Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloufar Hamadi were both released from Evin Prison on June 15, 2024, after approximately 16 months of temporary detention, upon posting bail of 10 billion tomans.
These two journalists were unlawfully held in temporary detention for over one year and three months.