Over 500 Cultural Figures Call for Halt to Sentencing of Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi

More than 500 journalists, artists, and social activists have requested in a letter to Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the head of the judiciary, to use his "authorities" to stop the execution of the sentences against Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi. The newspaper Shargh reported this news on Sunday, October 21, stating that the letter was signed by well-known filmmakers and artists including Negar Javaherian, Leili Golestan, Sahar Dolatshahi, Roya Timourian, Ehtiram Boroumand, Reza Kianian, Hanieh Tosili, Lili Farhadpour, Hana Kamkar, Fereydoun Khalatbari, Setareh Eskandari, and Taraneh Alidoosti. The list of signatories also includes prominent individuals and journalists such as Fereydoun Sedighi, Badrsadat Mofidi, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, Alireza Raji, Kambiz Nourzoy, Minou Badiei, Keyvan Samimi, Saeed Shariati, and Zhila Baniyaghoub. Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi were summoned to Evin Prison to serve their sentences. Yesterday, the lawyers of Niloufar Hamedi, a journalist for Shargh newspaper, announced that this journalist had been summoned to Evin Prison to serve a 5-year prison sentence. The Telegram channel of Ham-Mihan newspaper also reported a similar ruling for Elahe Mohammadi, a journalist for that newspaper. Hamedi and Mohammadi were arrested following their coverage of the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini while in the custody of the morality police and her burial in September 2022. After more than a year of temporary detention, they were sentenced to long prison terms in a court presided over by Judge Salavati. The Tehran Court of Appeals converted the bail for these two journalists to 10 billion tomans each last December, and they were temporarily released. On October 15, the lawyers of Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi emphasized in separate interviews that their clients are subject to the "amnesty directive announced in 2022." However, the judiciary announced that due to the publication of images without mandatory hijab by Elahe Mohammadi and Niloufar Hamedi after their temporary release from prison, a new case has been opened against these two journalists. Last week, Asghar Jahangir, the spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary, announced that the five-year prison sentence for Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, journalists for Shargh and Ham-Mihan newspapers, will be executed.