Ruhollah Nakhaee

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Ruhollah Nakhaee, a journalist with Iran’s state-run HamMihan newspaper, is serving a two-year and seven-month prison sentence despite being eligible for a pardon in 2022.

Nakhaee was one of dozens of journalists detained in September 2022 amid widespread protests following the death in morality police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. On January 17, 2023, Nakhaee was temporarily released from pre-trial detention as his case was being processed.

In early 2023, he was sentenced by Revolutionary Court’s Branch 28 for two years for “assembly and collusion” and an additional seven months for “propaganda against the state.” His sentences were upheld on in May 2023 by Branch 36 of Tehran’s Appeals Court.

Nakhaee reported to Tehran’s Evin prison after receiving a court summons on June 13, 2023, to begin serving his sentence, but was not taken into custody at the time. On February 24, 2024, he began serving his sentence, according to comments from his lawyer Parto Borhanpour in the news outlet HamMihan. The lawyer said that the journalist met the terms of a mass pardon in 2022 but was not released.

CPJ was unable to determine the status of Nakhaee’s health in prison.

CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York City in late 2024 for comment on the case of Nakhaee and those of other imprisoned Iranian journalists but received no response.