Hoda and Zahra Towhidi were summoned by phone and subsequently arrested
Two journalists, Hoda and Zahra Towhidi, were arrested following a phone summons and transferred to Evin Prison to serve their sentences.
Zahra and Hoda Towhidi went to the Implementation of the Verdicts’ Branch 1 of the Prosecutor’s Office following a phone summons on May 31, 2023. They were subsequently arrested and transferred to Evin Prison to serve their sentences.
The phone summons of Hoda and Zahra Towhidi took place without any official notification of the implementation of the verdict registered in the judicial system or communicated to their lawyers.
The two journalists were arrested during the initial days of the nationwide protests in 2022. After nearly three months of temporary detention, they were released on bail on December 17, 2022.
Zahra and Hoda Towhidi were sentenced to one year of imprisonment by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court on charges of “assembly and collusion” and “propaganda against the state.”
Systematic harassment and humiliation of journalists
Iranian journalists face systematic harassment, including incidents such as physical assault and forcefully grabbing the microphone from the hands of journalists. For example, a security officer from the Ministry of Health broke the fingers of Faezeh Momeni, a city reporter.
