Two young female journalists who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini have been cleared of charges of collaborating with the United States government but will still spend up to five more years behind bars, the Iranian authorities have announced.<\/p>\n
Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi<\/a> were arrested in 2022 after reporting on the death and funeral of Amini, the young Kurdish woman who died in police custody<\/a> in 2022, sparking the nationwide Women, Life, Freedom protests<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hamedi and Mohammadi were initially charged<\/a> with \u201ccollusion and assembly against national security\u201d and \u201cpropaganda activity against the regime\u201d and sentenced to 13 and 12 years respectively.<\/p>\n In January they were released from prison<\/a> after 17 months in detention and their sentences have now been reduced to five years each after a court acquitted them of further charges of \u201ccollaboration with the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n On Sunday, an Iranian judicial spokesperson, Asghar Jahangir, said the five-year prison sentences would now be imposed but did not indicate when, meaning that the two women will have to wait to see when the authorities will implement the court ruling.<\/p>\n The families and lawyers representing the two women said they had hoped they would be pardoned and allowed to remain free, after state media reported<\/a> last year that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei intended to pardon \u201ctens of thousands<\/a>\u201d of prisoners, including those arrested during the Women, Life, Freedom protests.<\/p>\n Skylar Thompson, director of advocacy at the US-based organisation Human Rights Activists in Iran<\/a>, said: \u201cThe regime\u2019s refusal to grant these journalists the 2023 amnesty represents a blatant disregard for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n