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Iran Sentences Two Journalists for Writing About Mahsa Amini
An Iranian Revolutionary Court sentenced two journalists to prison for covering the death of a young woman in police custody last year.
Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi were given prison sentences of seven years and six years, respectively, Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported Sunday.
The pair were found guilty of collaborating with the US government in protests that swept the country following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in a Tehran hospital after she was arrested for allegedly flouting the country’s Islamic dress codes in September 2022.
Rights groups say more than 500 people have died in anti-government protests. At least seven men, most of them in their 20s, were hanged for their alleged roles in unrest and thousands more were jailed, according to Amnesty International.
Read more: Jailed Iranian Women’s Rights Activist Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
Other charges against Hamedi and Mohammadi included spreading propaganda against the state and acting against national security. The verdicts can be appealed, according to Mizan.
There is “conclusive evidence” that the two journalists “sought anti-security objectives” in collaboration with individuals and organizations close to the US government, Mizan said without elaboration.
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One of our new BRICS buddies? Maybe the esteemed Naledi Pandor should intervene. Or is press freedom something that our government would privately rather do without?