Iran pardons journalists whose reporting sparked hijab protest

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi had been sentenced to 13 and 12 years in prison for their coverage of the death of Mahsa Amini.

By REUTERS FEBRUARY 11, 2025 14:15 Updated: FEBRUARY 11, 2025 14:21

Iranian Americans rally outside the White House on September 24, 2022, in support of anti-regime protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini. (photo credit: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

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.

MEMBERS OF the Iranian diaspora in Europe take part in a rally in Brussels last September, marking the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini. (credit: YVES HERMAN/REUTERS)

Amini hijab protests

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.

Amini, 22, died on September 16, 2022, in a hospital after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. The protests that followed began with the chant “Women, Life, Freedom” but soon evolved into widespread calls for revolt against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.