Two Iranian Journalists Sentenced to Total of Over Eight Years in Prison

Branch 36 of the Court of Appeals in Tehran province has sentenced two women journalists, Saeedeh Shafiei and Nasim Sultanbeigi, to more than four years in prison each.

Shafiei and Sultanbeigi received three-year and six months prison sentences on the charge of "assembly and collusion."

They were also handed seven months and 16 days in prison each for "propaganda activities" against the Islamic Republic.

The court’s verdict stipulates that the two journalists will be excluded from an “amnesty” announced in February.

Shafiei and Sultanbeigi were initially sentenced to three years and seven months on the charge of "assembly and collusion." 

"It would have been a more honorable decision to uphold the lower court's ruling," Sultanbeigi wrote on Instagram after the appeals verdict.

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. 

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media freedom NGO, Iranian authorities have arrested at least 95 journalists since Amini’s death in September 2022.