Iranian journalist Elaheh Mohammadi, one of two Iranian reporters charged with conspiracy against national security, was tried in a closed court on charges related to her coverage of Mahsa Amini’s funeral.
An Iranian journalist has been tried behind closed doors on charges related to her coverage of the funeral of a Kurdish-Iranian woman whose death last year caused months of unrest in detention, her lawyer told ILNA news agency.
The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s Islamic dress code sparked a wave of mass protests across the country for months, posing the greatest challenge to Iran’s ecclesiastical leaders in decades.
Elaheh Mohammadi, a reporter from the reformist Hammihan newspaper who went on trial in Tehran on Monday, and another journalist, Niloofar Hamedi, from the Sharq newspaper, have been charged with “conspiring with hostile forces” for their coverage of Amini’s death.
The charge may carry a death penalty under Iranian law.
Iran’s intelligence ministry released a joint statement in October accusing Mohammadi and Hamedi of being foreign CIA operatives.
Hamedi took a photo of Amini’s parents hugging at a hospital in Tehran where their daughter was in a coma.
Mohammadi reported on Amini’s funeral in her Kurdish hometown of Saqez, where protests began. Iran accused its foreign enemies of fomenting protests to destabilize the country.
“The trial against Elaheh Mohammadi went well. The date of the next hearing will be announced by the court,” her lawyer, Shahabeddin Mirlohi, told ILNA. He was not immediately available for comment.
The image of Amini, which Hamedi posted on Twitter, was the first signal to the world that the young woman, who had been arrested three days earlier by the Iranian vice squad, was not well.
The two journalists, who have been detained in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison since September last year, will be tried separately. The trial against Hamedi will start on Tuesday, according to the judiciary.
Iran has ignored repeated calls from human rights groups for a public trial against the two journalists.