Iran begins trial of journalist who covered Mahsa Amini’s death

By Reuters

On May 31, 2023

Niloofar Hamedi appears in court over her reporting on woman whose death sparked mass protests

A revolutionary court in Iran has begun the trial of a journalist behind closed doors on charges linked to her coverage of a Kurdish-Iranian woman whose death in custody last year sparked months of unrest, her husband has said.

Mahsa Amini’s death while held by the “morality police” for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code unleashed a wave of mass anti-government protests for months, posing one of the boldest challenges to the country’s clerical leaders in decades.

A photo taken by Niloofar Hamedi for the pro-reform Shargh daily newspaper showing Amini’s parents hugging each other in a Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma was the first sign to the world that all was not well with 22-year-old Amini.

Tuesday’s trial session “ended in less than two hours while her lawyers did not get a chance to defend her and her family members were not allowed to attend the court”, tweeted Hamedi’s husband, Mohammad Hossein Ajorlou.

“She denied all the charges against her and emphasised that she had performed her duty as a journalist based on the law,” he said.

Hamedi, along with another female journalist, Elaheh Mohammadi, who went on trial on Monday, face several charges including “colluding with hostile powers” for their coverage of Amini’s death.

In October, Iran’s intelligence ministry accused Mohammadi and Hamedi, who have both now been imprisoned for more than eight months, of being CIA foreign agents.

Iran’s clerical rulers have blamed the protests on an array of enemies, including the US, aiming to destabilise the Islamic Republic.

This piece was republished from The Guardian.