A young woman in Iran has been sentenced to death over a social media post. She has been charged with blasphemy. Following this verdict, international human rights organizations have expressed deep concern regarding the escalating use of the death penalty in the country. The convicted woman is 23-year-old accounting student Najmeh Amini. She is currently detained in Vakilabad Prison in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad. Separate Revolutionary and Criminal courts in the country handed her a sentence of over 12 and a half years in prison and a death sentence in two separate cases. The Guardian reported this news.
Citing a source close to Amini’s family, the US-based human rights group ‘Human Rights Activists in Iran’ (HRAI) stated that she was sentenced to death on charges of insulting the Prophet (PBUH). In the other case, she was sentenced to over 12 and a half years in prison for acting against national security and spreading propaganda against the government. Security forces arrested Amini during nationwide protests last January. Last month, in an audio message sent from prison, Amini appealed for international intervention. Calling upon the UN, lawyers, and human rights organizations to investigate her case, she said, “I want only one thing: for you to be my voice. I am an innocent young woman with many dreams.”
“My parents are waiting for me.” Human rights organizations have warned that Iranian authorities are using the death penalty as a tool to spread fear and suppress dissent. The Oslo-based organization ‘Iran Human Rights’ (IHRNGO) reported that more than 600 people have already been executed in the country this year. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the organization’s director, stated that imposing the death penalty for social media posts risks normalizing this extreme punishment as a response to freedom of expression. The Iranian newspaper ‘Khorasan’ reported that Amini claimed in court he had made the post unintentionally while in a state of hallucination after consuming psychedelic mushrooms with friends. However, the judge rejected this argument, questioning why he had not written anything about the US or Israel while in that state. This verdict against Amini is not yet final, and there remains an opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court.
