Journalist Who Reported Mahsa Amini's Hospitalization Held in Solitary Confinement

An Iranian newspaper journalist who covered the death of Mahsa Amini is being held in solitary confinement, her husband reported on Monday.

Mohammad Hossein Ajorlou wrote that Niloufar Hamedi, a reporter for the Tehran-based reformist daily Shargh, was being interrogated in Evin Prison without being informed of the charges against her.

Hamedi was arrested in a raid on the couple’s home last Thursday by Ministry of Information agents, who ransacked the property and confiscated their laptops and mobile phones.

The previous week Hamedi had been one of the first journalists to write about Mahsa’s hospitalization after she fell into a coma at the hands of the morality patrol.

After reporting Mahsa’s transfer to Kasra Hospital, she had published a photo of the 22-year-old’s devastated parents hugging each other in the hospital corridor, which spread rapidly online.

Ajorlou wrote on Twitter that after four days of repeated visits and calls to the Ministry and Evin Prosecutor’s Office, he had finally been permitted a short phone call with his wife on Monday.

#نیلوفر_حامدی چند دقیقه پیش به من و مادرش زنگ زد. حال او خوب است و گفت هر روز در سلول انفرادی یوگا می‌کند. همچنان اطلاعی از تشکیل پرونده خود ندارد و به او گفته‌اند تحقیقات درحال انجام است.

— محمدحسین آجورلو (@mohamadhosein_2) September 26, 2022

“She’s practising yoga every day in solitary confinement,” he said. “She still doesn’t know about any case filed against her and was told the investigation was ‘ongoing’.”

Hamedi is one of a number of reporters and photographers who have been arrested since protests over Mahsa’s death broke out on September 16. The judiciary has green-lit a policy of “preventative arrests” seemingly intended to stop activists from taking part in demonstrations, and journalists from covering them.