Journalists walk free after Iranian court reduces their prison sentences – Firstpost

An Iranian court has acquitted two jailed journalists of collaborating with the United States and reduced their sentences over reports of the death of a woman that contributed to the 2022 protests, Iran’s worst civil unrest in decades.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, sentenced a year ago to thirteen and twelve years in prison respectively, had their sentences reduced to five years, justice spokesman Asghar Jahangir told a press conference on Sunday.

“They were acquitted by the appeals court of the charge of collaborating with the US,” Jahangir said.

The two journalists were jailed for their reporting on the death in custody of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini while she was being held by morality police over allegations that she had violated Iran’s Islamic dress code.

Her death sparked nationwide protests in late 2022 and 2023 that became Iran’s biggest civil unrest since the 1979 revolution that brought Iran’s clerical rulers to power.