Iran pardons journalists who covered woman’s death that triggered protests

VOA-Feb11th2025

Iran’s top judicial authority has pardoned two journalists who uncovered the death of a young woman in police custody, the judiciary’s news outlet, Mizan, said Tuesday. The case triggered widespread protests in 2022.

Journalists Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloofar Hamedi had been sentenced to 12 and 13 years in prison, respectively, by an Iranian Revolutionary Court in 2023 for their coverage of the death of Mahsa Amini.

Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman, died in 2022 while in the custody of Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

The death of the 22-year-old sparked the nationwide “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, which in turn prompted a harsh crackdown by Iranian authorities.

The pardons of the two journalists were applied on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, Mizan said.

“Following the approval by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of a list of pardons that was prepared by the judiciary’s head, these individuals were pardoned,” Mizan said.

Both journalists were temporarily released last year after spending 17 months behind bars and later acquitted of the charge of “collaboration with the U.S.” in an appeals court.

Other charges, such as “colluding against national security” and “propaganda against the regime,” remained. But the pardons mean those charges have now been cleared, and the legal cases against the journalists are now closed.

The jailings of the two journalists underscores the poor state of press freedom in Iran.

The country ranks among the worst jailers of journalists in the world, with at least 16 behind bars for their work as of early December 2024, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.

Iranian authorities detained at least 95 journalists in the wake of the nationwide protests following Amini’s death, according to CPJ.

In 2024, Iran ranked 176 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, where 180 shows the worst press freedom environment.

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