DUBAI: An Iranian journalist went on trial behind closed doors on charges linked to her coverage of the funeral of a Kurdish-Iranian woman whose death in custody the previous year triggered months of unrest, her lawyer told ILNA news agency.
According to Voice of America, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code unleashed a wave of mass protests across Iran for months, marking the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical leaders in decades.
Elaheh Mohammadi covered Amini’s funeral in her Kurdish hometown, Saqez, where the protests began. Iran accused its foreign foes of igniting the demonstrations to destabilize the country.
“The trial of Elaheh Mohammadi went well. The court would announce the date of the next session,” her lawyer, Shahabeddin Mirlohi, told ILNA. He was not immediately available for comment.
Mohammadi, a reporter for the pro-reform Hammihan newspaper who is on trial in Tehran, and another journalist, Niloofar Hamedi, of the Sharq newspaper, have been accused of “colluding with hostile powers” for their coverage of Amini’s death.
The charge potentially carries the death penalty under Islamic law.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry released a joint statement in October accusing Mohammadi and Hamedi of being CIA foreign agents.
Hamedi took a picture of Amini’s parents hugging each other in the Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma.
The picture, which Hamedi posted on Twitter, was the first signal to the globe that all wasn’t well with Amini, who had been detained three days earlier by Iran’s morality police.
The two journalists in Iran’s notorious Evin prison since last September would be tried separately. Hamedi’s trial would begin on Tuesday, according to the judiciary.
The Islamic Republic has ignored repeated calls by rights groups for a public trial of the two journalists.