Trial for reporter who exposed case of Mahsa Amini opens in Tehran

An Iranian reporter detained since September after she exposed the case of Mahsa Amini that sparked nationwide protests Tuesday denies all charges against her as her trial on national security charges opens in Tehran, her husband says.

Niloufar Hamedi, 30, tells the court “she had performed her work as a journalist within the framework of the law and did not take any action against Iran’s security,” her husband Mohammad Hossein Ajorlou writes on Twitter.

Hamedi, a journalist with the Shargh newspaper, had reported from the Tehran hospital where Amini was rushed in September in a coma after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s dress rules for women. Amini subsequently died, with the news prompting nationwide protests. While the movement had abated in the last months in the face of a crackdown, sporadic actions continue.

The journalist was charged on November 8 with propaganda against the state and conspiring against national security, offenses that potentially carry the death penalty. Hamedi appears at branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court before Judge Abolghasem Salavati, notorious for handing out tough sentences in political cases.