Iran pardons journalists who reported woman’s death that triggered unrest

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

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi had been sentenced to 13 and 12 years in prison respectively by an Iranian Revolutionary Court in October 2023 for their coverage of the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman in the custody of the morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code.

“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, adding that the pardons were applied on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Last year, both journalists were temporarily released after 17 months in prison, and later acquitted of the charge of “collaboration with the US” in an appeal court.

Other charges such as “colluding against national security” and “propaganda against the regime” remained, but have now been cleared by the pardon and the journalists’ judicial case is now closed.

Protests that followed Amini’s death led to the worst unrest in Iran since the revolution.

The authorities blamed the United States for fomenting the demonstrations, which Washington denied.