Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – Human rights organizations are raising alarm over the rising number of death sentences and executions in Iran following reports that a 23-year-old woman, Najmeh Amini, was sentenced to death for blasphemy based on a social media post. Amini, the Guardian reports, is being held in Vakilabad prison in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad.
She was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison and to death in two separate trials.
A source close to Amini's family told the US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) that Amini was sentenced to death on charges of "sab ol-nabi" (insulting the Prophet). She was reportedly arrested based on Iranian police's web monitoring, but the offending content has not been revealed.
She was also sentenced to 12 years, six months, and one day in prison on charges ranging from activities against national security to spreading anti-regime propaganda.
Amini was arrested by Iranian security forces during protests earlier this year in the Islamic Republic. In an audio recording released last month and attributed to Amini, a female voice calls for the international community's intervention, urging the United Nations, lawyers, and human rights organizations to investigate the case.
“I’m an innocent girl, with many dreams and hopes,” she says. “I have parents waiting for me.”
Human rights organizations accuse authorities of increasingly using the death penalty as a form of intimidation and to suppress dissent. According to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), more than 600 people have been executed in Iran this year. "Sentencing a young woman to the death penalty for what she posted on social media risks normalizing the use of the death penalty against peaceful expression," emphasized Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHRNGO. And, he added, "if the international community does not respond decisively now, cases like this could become increasingly common."
According to the Iranian newspaper Khorasan, Amini told the court that he published the "incriminating" content while hallucinating. The sentence is not final.
The Guardian highlights that despite the increase in executions in Iran in recent years, death sentences for blasphemy remain relatively rare and that the last documented case dates back to 8 May 2023 when Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli-Zare were executed on blasphemy charges linked to social media activity.
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