US rejects claims of collaboration with detained Iranian journalists

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US State Department on Tuesday rejected any ties to two journalists imprisoned in Iran for breaking the news of the death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini which sparked months of protests. 

Niloufar Hamedi of Shargh Daily and Elaheh Mohammadi from Sazandegi paper were arrested separately in September last year for publicizing the death of Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. Months of antigovernment protests, met with a bloody crackdown, ensued after the death of the young Kurdish-Iranian woman. 

One of the charges brought against Hamedi and Mohammadi includes collaboration with the US. Protesters have been accused of collaborating with the US, Israel, and other western countries; all considered as foreign enemies by Tehran. 

“We reject those charges. They are obviously not true. And I will note that over the course of the protests,” said Matthew Miller, a US State Department spokesperson over the collaboration charges.

“Iranian authorities have repeatedly violated Iranians’ human rights, punished them for executing their essential freedoms,” Miller added while calling on Tehran to stop end “arbitrary detentions” and “sham trials.”

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and the intelligence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - leveled charges of espionage against Hamedi and Mohammadi. 

Hamedi is set for trial on May 30, while Mohammadi is scheduled for May 29.

Rights groups have also accused Iran of carrying out “sham trials” of those detained. 

The pending trial comes as the number of executions carried out has increased. On Friday Iran executed three men over participation in the demonstrations over Amini’s death. 

In a recent Amnesty International report, executions in Iran increased compared to previous years, which sees Iran’s recorded executions increasing from 314 in 2021 to 576 in 2022.

Earlier this month, both Hamedi and Mohammadi along with Iranian human rights activist Nargez Mohammadi, received the 2023 UNSECO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in absentia , for their reporting of the protests.

According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index issued by the Paris-based Reporters without Borders, a non-profit organization aiming to safeguard freedom of information, Iran is listed as 177 out of 180 in the world, making it one of the worst countries in the world for press freedom, followed only by Vietnam, China and North Korea.