By Hasse-Nima Golkar

A ”trial” began against two reporters; “Niloufar Hamedi” (Shargh newspaper) and “Elaheh Mohammadi” (Ham-Mihan newspaper), after nine months in detention centers, behind closed doors without the presence of their defense lawyers and their family members in the “Tehran Revolutionary Court ” indicted on false and fabricated counts of “Cooperation with the Hostile US State, Conspiracy to Commit Crimes Against National Security and Propaganda Activity Against the Islamic System”.

After the brutal murder of Mehsa (Jina) Amini by the “Moral Security Police” of the ruling fascist Shia Islamic State of Iran, which resulted in the nationwide protests and revolutionary “Woman-Life-Freedom” uprising, these two journalists are to be prosecuted. They have only performed their professional duties regarding the “recording of the truth”.

Niloufar Hamedi, wrote a report from Kasra Hospital in Tehran, where Mahsa was transferred in the presence of her parents. And Elaheh Mohammadi wrote a report on Mahsa’s magnificent funeral ceremony in her hometown of Saqqez (Kurdistan) in northwestern Iran.

So, Yesterday, May 29, Elaheh Mohammadi, and today, May 30, 2023, Niloufar Hamedi appeared in the “court” presided over by the death judge “Abolghasem Salawati”, without the presence of their defense lawyers and their parents.

They both denied the criminal charges and demanded a public trial, and saying: “As journalists, we have acted within the framework of the law according to the assignment of editors-in-chief and thus not acted against the security of the country”.

Saleh Nikbakht, the defense lawyer for Mehsa’s parents, says that: “This is one of the strangest court sessions in the country after Khalkhali’s courts)…”!

(Sadegh Khalkhali was Ayatollah Khomeini’s direct representative and a notorious and brutal executioner with several thousand executions against various dissidents).