Two Iranian Women Journalists Handed Jail Terms

Iranian journalists Saeedeh Shafiei and Nasim Sultanbeigi have been sentenced to four years and three months in prison on charges of "assembly and collusion" and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. 

According to the Telegram channel of the Journalist Association of Tehran province, Shafiei’s husband, Hasan Homayoun, said that Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court also banned the two journalists from traveling and being members of any groups for a period of two years.

He said that a third woman journalist, Mehrnoosh Zarei, was acquitted of all charges.

Shafiei and Sultanbeigi were arrested in October 2022, along with a number of other journalists, in the wake of widespread protests sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. 

Iran ranked as the world’s worst jailer of journalists in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) 2022 prison census, which documented those behind bars as of December 1. 

According to the New York-based media freedom watchdog, the Islamic Republic has detained at least 95 journalists during last year’s nationwide protests. 

Many have been released on bail while awaiting trial or summonses to serve multi-year sentences.