Elaha Mohammadi, a reporter for Ham-Mihan newspaper in Iran, was sentenced to five years in prison, Arab media reported on Sunday.
This ruling, confirmed by the appeals court, relates to charges of assembly and conspiracy to commit a crime against national security, and Mohammadi must report to Evin prison within five days to begin her five-year sentence.
The order has been sent to Branch 1 of the Criminal Sentence Execution at the General and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office of Tehran, despite Mohammadi's legal team saying the Supreme Leader would pardon her after being cleared of cooperating with a hostile government.
Ahmad Zeidabadi responded to the executive order, stating, "Elaha Mohammadi and Nilufar Hamedi, two press colleagues, have been notified to report themselves to prison within five days to serve the remainder of their sentence," and raised concerns about the legality of their imprisonment, mentioning "the legal arguments of many jurists and lawyers regarding the compliance of this case's status."
Zeidabadi also questioned the reasoning behind their imprisonment, asking, "What justification does all this really leave for imprisoning two social reporters?"
Calls for reassessment of imprisonment
He also called on justice authorities, including Medeshkian, the main officer handling the case, and Mohseni-Ajei, the head of the judicial system in Iran, urging them to reconsider the notification. Zeidabadi suggested that imprisoning these two young female journalists only distracts from important events in Lebanon and Gaza, stating, "You turn yourself and mobilize the public of news networks against you; what else is there to gain from behaving like this?"
Additionally, Zeidabadi expressed confusion about the implications of the imprisonment, asking, "During this time when these two colleagues were released on bail, what damage was done to the ruling apparatus that is supposed to be prevented by imprisoning them?
"I am completely helpless in understanding these behaviors and I do not understand at all what is happening in this country and what is going to happen."
Sociologist Mohammad Fazli shared similar concerns on social media, asking, "[Will] these actions solve the budget deficit, inflation, tension with Israel, etc.?"
Parto Burhanpour and Hojjat Kermani, lawyers for Hamedi, expressed their dissatisfaction with the recent developments in her case during an interview with Sharq Network.
They stated, "Ms. Nilufar Hamedi should be granted amnesty according to the law and according to the amnesty circular 1401," emphasizing that her case should be closed.
Despite the executive order requiring her to report to Evin prison within five days to serve a five-year sentence, they insisted that the charges against her, collusion to commit a crime against national security, along with propaganda activity against the regime, are covered under the amnesty circular.
The lawyers repeated that the charges against Hamedi, no matter their validity, should allow her to benefit from the amnesty. They said, "It is not clear what the insistence on Hamidi not benefiting from this legal institution is."
They concluded by arguing that even if one were to interpret the situation pessimistically, if Hamedi is not granted amnesty, the interpretation would favor the accused, and amnesty should be applied in her situation.