Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir has announced that the prison sentences of two journalists, Niloufar Hamidi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who were the first to report on and publish images relating to the death of Jina (Mahsa) Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police in Tehran, are to be enforced despite a pardon issued by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The families of Hamidi and Mohammadi, journalists and lawyers, have condemned this decision. Niloufar Hamidi and Elaheh Mohammadi, reporters with the Iranian news sites Shargh and Ham Mihan respectively, were each sentenced to five years in prison, and according to lawyers representing Hamidi and Mohammadi the two journalists were ordered on 19 October to present themselves to Evin Prison within five days to begin their sentences.
Shahabuddin Mirlohi, a lawyer acting for Mohammadi, voiced his protest in an interview with Ham Mihan on 20 October, stating that Mohammadi’s return to prison blatantly violates both Iranian law and a pardon issued in 2022 by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He urged the authorities to prevent the enforcement of this unjust sentence.
In a statement reported by Iranian outlets on 22 October, Jahangir responded to inquiries about the status of the case of the two journalists, confirming that while they have been acquitted of charges related to collaboration with a hostile foreign government, the five-year sentences handed down to them for “propaganda against the regime” and “collusion against national security” are to be enforced, as the verdicts have been finalised.
Following this announcement, calls for clemency have intensified. Lawyers, journalists, academics, artists and thousands of social media users have demanded the case be revisited, and a petition titled “Request to Suspend the five-year prison sentence of Mohammadi and Hamidi” has garnered nearly 31,000 signatures.
Social media has been flooded with criticisms of the Iranian government for criminalising truth-telling, with the widespread use of hashtags such as #Nilufar_Elaha_Freedom, and the phrase ‘Journalism is not a crime’ posted in Persian, English and German.
In a parallel effort, over 500 cultural figures, journalists and academics from within Iran have appealed to Gholam Hossein Mohseni Eje’i, the Chief Justice of Iran, to intervene and stop the enforcement of the prison sentences.
Hamidi and Mohammadi gained prominence in 2022 for their reports on the events surrounding Amini’s death. Their coverage ensured that the details of her death did not remain concealed, leading to the recognition in Iran of the two women journalists as “truth tellers”.
On 17 September 2022, following widespread protests in the aftermath of Amini’s killing, a joint statement by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Hamidi and Mohammadi of being agents of Western intelligence services, alleging that they had been trained to create unrest in Iran and noting that they were responsible for releasing the first images of Amini on her hospital bed.
Although expectations for their acquittal remain slim, the Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Abbas Salehi, indicated in an interview with ISNA on 23 October that his ministry is actively working to resolve the case.
