Press freedom teams Monday condemned as “outrageous” the prolonged jail sentences handed to the 2 Iranian journalists who uncovered the case of Mahsa Amini, saying each girls had been merely doing their jobs.

Amini died in September 2022 in police custody after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict gown guidelines for ladies.

Her loss of life, which activists say was attributable to a blow to the pinnacle in accusations denied by Tehran, sparked months of protests which have now misplaced depth within the face of a fierce crackdown.

Niloufar Hamedi, 31, reported for Iran’s Shargh newspaper from the hospital the place Amini languished in a coma for 3 days earlier than she died, and Elaheh Mohammadi, 36, a reporter for the Ham Mihan newspaper, went to Saqez to report on Amini’s funeral.

The two girls had been arrested shortly afterwards and have been held in detention ever since with each tried and now convicted on nationwide safety costs.

“These sentences are outrageous. A year’s provisional detention did not satisfy the thirst for revenge of the Islamic republic, which has punished these two courageous journalists very severely,” stated Jonathan Dagher, head of the Middle East desk at Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

“They are being punished for doing their job,” he added.

They had been each convicted by a Revolutionary Court of collaboration with Iran’s arch enemy the United States, the judiciary’s Mizan Online web site stated. Both vehemently denied the fees throughout their trials.

In its ruling, the Revolutionary Court sentenced Mohammadi to 6 years in jail, and Hamedi was handed seven years in jail, stated Mizan.

The pair had been additionally every given five-year sentences for conspiring in opposition to state safety and one for propaganda in opposition to the Islamic republic, the web site stated, including that the sentences could be served concurrently.

“The convictions of Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi are a travesty and serve as a stark testament to the erosion of freedom of speech and the desperate attempts of the Iranian government to criminalise journalism,” stated Sherif Mansour, the Middle East and North Africa program coordinator for the Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Hamedi’s husband Mohammad Hossein Ajorlo wrote on X, previously Twitter, that his spouse had been knowledgeable of the “cruel” verdict on her birthday whereas on her method to a household assembly in jail.

According to the CPJ, Iran arrested no less than 95 journalists within the crackdown after Amini’s loss of life and, whereas most have now been launched on bail, round a dozen stay behind bars together with Hamedi and Mohammadi.

Mary Lawlor, the UN particular rapporteur on human rights defenders, wrote on X she was “disturbed” by the sentences given to the journalists and the current one-year time period handed to the Amini household lawyer Saleh Nikbakht.

“Iran must stop the widespread persecution of rights defenders and journalists,” she stated.