Iranian security forces arrested Iranian journalist Elahe Mohammadi, a reporter for the state-run Hammihan Newspaper, on September 22, 2022.
Mohammadi covers politics and human rights and was among the first journalists to cover the September 16 death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, after morality police arrested her for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress law.
According to a tweet by her lawyer Mohammad-Ali Kamfirouzi, security forces broke the door to the journalist’s home in Tehran and confiscated her laptop, books, phone, and press card before arresting her.
Her husband Saeed Parsaee said in an October 15 tweet that she is held in solitary confinement. An anonymous source who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal said that the journalist is detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
In an October 28 statement, Iranian authorities accused Mohammadi and another jailed Iranian journalist, Niloofar Hamedi, of being spies for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and of being the “primary sources of news for foreign media.”
Hamedi and Mohammadi face the death penalty if formally charged and convicted of espionage.
Authorities arrested dozens of journalists as the protests over Amini’s death spread across the country. Several of them were later released on bail.
CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in late 2022 for comment on the cases of imprisoned Iranian journalists but received no response.