The second and last hearing in the trial of Niloofar Hamedi, a journalist imprisoned in Iran for 10 months, was held on July 25, with a preliminary verdict expected in the next few days, her husband said.
"I'm proud of my performance" as a journalist, Mohammad Hossein Ajorlo quoted his wife as telling Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Ajorlo said that her lawyers were granted the opportunity to present their arguments during the closed-door session.
Hamedi, a reporter for Shargh newspaper, was arrested for reporting on the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini in September last year.
Her first hearing on charges of collaborating with the "hostile" government of the United States, colluding to commit crimes against national security, and engaging in propaganda activities against the regime was held in May.
Elahe Mohammadi, another woman journalist arrested in September for covering the events surrounding Amini’s death, went on trial at the same time. The second hearing in Mohammadi’s closed-door trial is scheduled to be held on July 26.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) “stands in solidarity with Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammdi, their families and all Iranian journalists who have been harassed, imprisoned, and persecuted for doing their work, and calls on the international community to hold Iran accountable,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna said in a statement on July 24.
“Trying journalists in closed hearings is a travesty of justice and the strongest indication that there is no evidence of wrongdoing,” he added.
Iran ranked as the world’s worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s 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 months-long nationwide protests sparked by Amini’s death.
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