Over 150 Journalists Demand Freedom for Vida Rabani

More than 150 journalists signed a letter addressed to Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the head of the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, demanding the release of Vida Rabani, a journalism graduate from Allameh Tabatabai University and a member of the Tehran Journalists' Association. In the letter, they noted that Ms. Rabani has been active in official Iranian newspapers since 2011, stating: "In 2019, she was arrested for attending and reporting on a protest related to the downing of the Ukrainian plane in front of Amir Kabir University, and a case was opened against her." The letter, published on Saturday, March 15, on the website of the newspaper 'Shargh', mentioned that "the highest charge against her, namely the charge of insulting the sacred, was issued and executed," stating that Vida Rabani was sentenced to three years of imprisonment and two years of suspended imprisonment, with the latter suspended for five years. The signatories of the letter also referred to the protests against the killing of Mahsa Amini while in custody of the morality police in 2022, adding that Ms. Rabani's sentence was executed, and "considering the previous detention days, there are now only a few months left of this journalist's imprisonment." These journalists, considering Vida Rabani's health conditions and the fact that only five months remain until the end of her sentence, requested the head of the judiciary to "approve her release so she can start the new year with her family." Among the signatories of the letter are Bahman Ahmadi Amoui, Reza Asadabadi, Zeinab Ismaili, Afshin Amirshahi, Abotaleb Adinehvand, Mohammad Aghazadeh, Maryam Amusa, Masoud Bastani, Negin Bagheri, Ehsan Badaghi, Fariborz Bayat, Fariba Pazhouh, Mahsa Jazini, Jalal Jalali Zadeh, Saghareh Rahimi Shad, Javad Rouh, Marjan Zahrani, Pantea Sohili, Saba Shirdoust, Maryam Shekarani, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, Keyvan Samimi, Reyhaneh Tabatabai, Milad Alavi, Sara Ghazanfari, and Banafsha Gholami. Other journalists who signed the letter include Milad Fadaei, Mehran Faraji, Nasrin Farokhi, Mohammad Mehdi Farghani, Leili Farhadpour, Gisu Ghafouri, Mira Ghorbani Far, Yaghma Fashkhami, Ejlal Ghavami, Ali Koodkhodazadeh, Behrouz Gharanpaye, Elnaz Mohammadi, Zahra Moshtagh, Badr al-Sadat Mofidi, Shadi Maki, Ali Malihi, Nahid Mowlavi, Leila Mirghafari, Hoda Hashemi, Ali Hedayatloo, Shahrzad Hemmati, Masoud Hoshamand Razavi, Azam Veysmeh, and Hossein Yazdi. Vida Rabani has previously been arrested, including a period of detention in January 2022. In recent years, there have been security and judicial actions against journalists and citizen reporters in Iran. These actions have drawn widespread criticism globally.