Two female journalists in Iran who broke the story about the death of Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish Iranian woman who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police while being held for wearing her hijab incorrectly, were accused of being spies for the CIA and charged with being “primary sources of news for foreign media.” Iranian journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi have been held in Evin prison since late September, after the start of the ongoing protests against the government led by women sparked by Amini’s death.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in a statement issued over the weekend claimed that the CIA, as well as spy agencies in Israel, Britain and Saudi Arabia “planned extensively to launch a nationwide riot in Iran with the aim of committing crimes against the great nation of Iran and its territorial integrity, as well as laying the groundwork for the intensification of external pressures,” The Washington Post reported. The statement also was issued by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The journalists’ editors deny the charges.
Spying for foreign governments is a crime punishable by death in Iran.
On Saturday, the head of the Revolutionary Guard warned Iranians against continuing their protests, obliquely threatening to crack down on the demonstrations now into their seventh week. “Do not come to the streets! Today is the last day of the riots,” Hossein Salami said. More than 270 protesters have been killed and about 14,000 arrested in protests in 129 towns and cities and some 115 universities, Reuters reported, citing the activist HRANA news agency.