A week after the Iranian judiciary’s spokesperson announced the imminent implementation of the sentences for journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, the formal notifications for their prison terms were sent to them on Saturday, October 19, 2024, instructing them to report within five days.
The two journalists were released from Evin Prison on January 14, 2024, each on a temporary bail of 10 billion Tomans, after spending 16 months in prison.
Hamedi’s lawyers argue that her case should have been closed after she was acquitted of collaborating with a hostile foreign government. However, despite legal provisions for her to be pardoned under the 2022 amnesty directive, Niloufar Hamedi has been ordered to surrender to Evin Prison within five days to serve a five-year sentence for collusion against national security and propaganda against the state. Elaheh Mohammadi has also received a similar notification.
The lawyers emphasized that these remaining charges fall under amnesty and questioned why Hamedi was excluded, particularly when many others from the 2022 protests, facing harsher accusations, had been pardoned. They argue that legal and ethical principles dictate that any uncertainty in the interpretation of the law should benefit the defendant, urging the judiciary to apply the amnesty and halt the sentence.
Both journalists now face imprisonment despite calls for their pardon.
Niloufar Hamedi, a photojournalist for Shargh newspaper, took and published the first photo of Mahsa Amini in a coma at the hospital. Elaheh Mohammadi, a journalist for Ham-Mihan newspaper, published a report on Mahsa’s funeral and an interview with her father.
Niloufar Hamedi was arrested on September 22, 2022, and Elaheh Mohammadi on September 29.
Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi were detained in the notorious Qarchak Prison and relocated to Evin Prison on May 1, 2023.
The 15th Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced Niloufar Hamedi to 13 years and Elaheh Mohammadi to 12 years in jail. The notorious judge Salavati issued the verdicts.
