This Sunday, Iran released on bail journalists Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who had been imprisoned for more than 15 months for reporting on the death of Mahsa Yina Amini. The death of this 22-year-old Kurdish girl on September 16, 2022 in police custody after being arrested on charges of improperly wearing the veil triggered the largest wave of protests against the Iranian regime since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979. .
The two journalists were sentenced in the first instance in October to various prison sentences totaling 13 and 12 years respectively – however the actual sentence was seven and six years respectively. Both were arrested in September 2022, shortly after reporting Amini's death, and spent the entire time in Tehran's Evin Prison, most of it in isolation. Hamedi and Mohammadi emerged hand in hand from this prison, known for housing political prisoners, with the victory sign and without the veil, which is still mandatory in Iran. Family and friends waited for them outside with bouquets of flowers, according to videos posted on social media.
Mohammadi's twin sister Elnaz was the one who reported on the social network about convictions in the first case – including for conspiring against national security and collaborating with the United States. Hamedi and Mohammadi regained their freedom after paying the equivalent of 178,000 euros, said the Efe agency, which in turn reported, citing the Fars agency, that the two women were banned from leaving the country. This number is astronomical in a country whose average salary is the equivalent of 400 euros per month.
Until her arrest on September 22, 2022, 31-year-old Nilufar Hamedi worked at the semi-reformist newspaper Shargh Daily, while Mohammadi, 36, who was arrested seven days later, reported on the Ham-Miham website, which was also moderately critical.
Hamedi was the first journalist to approach Tehran's Kasra Hospital to inquire about the situation of a young woman who, according to several witnesses, was in a coma after being beaten by the moral police who detained her at the exit had been taken from the hospital. Tehran subway accused of wearing hijab incorrectly. It was September 16, 2022 and the young woman, Mahsa Yina Amini, had just been declared dead by doctors after being in a coma for three days. Hamedi took a photo of the young woman's parents hugging each other inconsolably and crying in a hallway at the center. Then he spread it on his social networks. That image soon went viral, sparking protests against the Iranian regime that erupted the day after her death at the young Amini's funeral in Saqqez, in her native Kurdistan, in the west of the country.
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The other journalist now out on bail, Mohammadi, reported on the funeral, where many women took off their veils and began chanting the phrase that has become a symbol of the protests against the Islamic Republic: “Woman, life and freedom .” At least 500 people later died in the ensuing repression. According to Iranian human rights organizations in exile, more than 22,000 people were arrested and at least eight men were executed, one of them publicly, in connection with the protests.
After their detention, Hamedi and Mohammadi were accused of “collusion with the hostile US government, collusion against national security and propaganda against the regime,” according to the Sharg Daily newspaper. The two journalists were convicted by Chamber 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. The Revolutionary Courts were created with the aim of trying opponents of the regime and maintaining close ties with the intelligence services of the Revolutionary Guards, the parallel army to the regular army, which in turn was created with the aim of defending the Islamic Republic. Chamber or Division 15 of this court also has a disastrous history of death sentences, particularly until 2019, when the so-called “hanging judge” Abdolqasem Salavati presided there.
On October 28, 2022, a joint statement from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guard Intelligence Service described both journalists, identified by their initials, as collaborators with the US CIA and the Israeli Mossad, particularly Hamedi. Without providing any evidence, the statement said: “Using the cover of a journalist, [Hamedi] He was one of the first people to arrive at the hospital and provoked the relatives of the deceased. [Mahsa Amini] to publish messages for a predetermined purpose.”
Regarding Mohammadi, the statement said that he “immediately attended the funeral ceremony of Mahsa Amini in his hometown of Saqqez in order to provoke his relatives by spreading the news and pictures of this funeral and burial.” The text said this reporter was “trained abroad by the North American Mafia regime.” Both Hamedi and Mohammadi, the statement said, “were a source of information for the foreign press.”
Both professional associations such as the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) viewed the women's detention as “arbitrary”. HRW accused the Iranian regime of constantly harassing, persecuting and punishing journalists and those who “exercise their right to freedom of expression.” During the 15 months they spent in prison, Hamedi and Mohammadi were awarded various international awards, including the 2023 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual recognition of press freedom given by the World Association of News Publishers.
Iran has arrested at least 95 more journalists since the outbreak of anti-regime protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, according to CPJ data. Like Hamedi and Mohammadi, many of these informants were released on bail without the charges against them being dropped, including in several cases being banned from practicing their profession and even reporting on their social networks.
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