A year after being captured and imprisoned for having published about the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Jina Amini, Iranian journalists Nilufar Hamedani and Elahe Mohammadi yesterday received a sentence of 13 and 12 years respectively on charges that include "cooperation with hostile governments" - read United States -, "crimes against national security" and "propaganda against the Islamic Republic."
According to Iranian law, both must serve the highest sentence of the three for which they have been tried, in this case related to cooperation with states that are enemies of Iran, which is seven and six years respectively. Additionally, Nilufar Hamedi, who turned 31 yesterday, has been prohibited from any activity on social networks and from working in the media for a period of one year after his release. His lawyers have 20 days to appeal.
Yesterday's announcement coincided with the news published by some local media that Armita Geravand, whose sad story has great similarities with that of Mahsa Amini, is brain dead. The 16-year-old girl fainted on October 1 when she had just boarded the subway in Tehran, on her way to school. According to witnesses, Armita and two of her friends had entered the station without a veil and had a run-in with security agents, but additional details are unknown. She was immediately taken to a government hospital where she remains in a coma under strict security.
Their parents assured public television that they saw all the videos and that there is no sign of aggression, but these types of statements are unreliable, given that the authorities usually pressure and threaten families in these types of situations. One of the journalists who covered the story was jailed, but unlike Nilufar Hamedi and Elhan Mohammadi, he was quickly released hours later.
Both journalists were captured days after the death of Mahsa Jina Ameni, on September 16, 2022. The 22-year-old Kurdish girl had been captured by the misnamed “morality police” or Gasht-e Ershad for allegedly not complying with the Islamic dress standards. When she was at the police station, the young woman suffered a heart attack that would end her life three days later. Some witnesses claimed that she was beaten when she was in the van that was transporting her, while authorities relate her death to a previous illness, a version that has been rejected by her family.
Nilufar Hamedani, who works for the reformist newspaper Sharq and specializes in social issues, was one of the first journalists to report on the 22-year-old's health status when she was in Tehran's Kasrow hospital.
A photo published by Nilufar on social networks, where Mahsa's parents are seen hugging in the corridor of the hospital, was confirmation that the young woman, who was then brain dead, had died. This image increased the indignation of a large sector of society, especially women and especially young people, who took to the streets to protest and began one of the most important mobilizations in Iran in recent decades.
In that same context, Elahe Mohammadi took over from her colleague and friend who by then was already the subject of pressure. Following the instructions of the editor of her newspaper, also a reformist, she went to the Kurdish city of Saqqez to attend Jina Amini's funeral. The two were captured a few days apart.
A few weeks after the arrest, the Ministry of Intelligence and the intelligence department of the Revolutionary Guard - famous in Iran for their disagreements - published a joint statement in which they accused the two journalists of having participated in courses taught and financed by the United States. with the aim of teaching “hybrid warfare.” They accused them of having been the first to “fabricate news for abroad” related to Amini's death. In that statement they also accused the Washington government of being behind the protests.
This accusation has always been denied by people close to the journalists, but it suggested that both journalists were being used to send a warning message not only to Iranian communicators, but to all those who publish information on social networks or have some contact with the foreign press. Especially those who collaborate with Persian-language channels operating abroad.
Since their arrest, Nilufar and Elahe have remained in Tehran's Evin prison where, thanks to the visits of their husbands, they have been able to learn about international support for their work, including the UNESCO Guillermo Cano Prize for Press Freedom that bears the name of the murdered man. former director of the Colombian newspaper El Espectador. "We know that together we will overcome all difficulties and celebrate freedom," wrote yesterday on X, formerly Twitter, also journalist Mohammed Hossein Ajorlou, Nilufar's husband.
