AN IRANIAN court sentenced two female journalists today to lengthy prison terms for “collaborating” with the US government, among other charges. 

Both Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi have been imprisoned for over a year following their coverage of the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police, which sparked months of protests against the Islamist regime.

The journalists’ sentence is a preliminary ruling that can be appealed against in 20 days.

Ms Hamedi, who broke the news of Ms Amini’s death following her arrest for wearing her headscarf too loosely, and Ms Mohammadi, who wrote about her funeral, were sentenced to seven and six years in jail respectively, judiciary news website Mizan reported today.

The Tehran Revolutionary Court had charged them with “collaborating with the hostile American government,” “colluding against national security” and “propaganda against the system,” according to Mizan.

Lawyers for the two journalists have rejected the charges.

“They received seven years and six years each respectively for collaborating with the hostile US government. Then each five years in prison for acting against national security and each one year in prison for propaganda against the system,” according to the IRNA news agency. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Ms Hamedi worked for reformist newspaper Shargh, while Ms Mohammadi wrote for Ham-Mihan. They were detained in September last year.

In May, the United Nations awarded the two journalists its premier prize for press freedom “for their commitment to truth and accountability.”

A statement released by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in October last year claimed that there was documented evidence that they had “intentional connections with certain entities and individuals affiliated with the US government.”

The demonstrations sparked by Ms Amini’s death posed one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic republic since the 2009 Green Movement protests drew millions of people onto the streets.

While nearly 100 journalists were arrested amid the protests, Ms Hamedi and Ms Mohammadi’s reporting was crucial in spreading the word about this outburst of popular anger.

The two women’s detention helped to fuel international criticism of the bloody state crackdown on the demonstrations.

At least 529 people were killed during the demonstrations, according to human rights activists in Iran, while over 19,700 others were detained as the authorities strove to suppress the dissent. 

Iranian authorities have not provided any overall casualty figures but acknowledge that tens of thousands were arrested.