November 29, 2024
An Iranian court has cleared two female jour nalists of collaborating with the United States, and reduced their sentences for stories about Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody that helped trigger protests in 2022, Iran’s worst domestic unrest for decades.
Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi sentenced a year ago to 13 years and 12 years in prison respectively, had their terms reduced to five years each, Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir told a news conference. “They were acquitted of the charge of collaboration with the US in the appeal court,” Jahangir said.
The two journalists were jailed for their coverage of the death in custody of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini while she was being held by the morality police over accusations she breached Iran’s Islamic dress code. Her death sparked nationwide protests in late 2022 and 2023 that grew into Iran’s biggest domestic unrest since the 1979 revolution.
