Freelance Iranian journalist Saeedeh Shafiei, who covers economics and the oil and gas industries for outlets including the state-run semi-reformist Shargh Daily, Donya-e-Eqtesad, and Ensafnews, was sentenced to three-and-a half years in prison on anti-state charges in August 2023.
Shafiei was initially arrested on January 22, 2023, from her home in Tehran by intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps over her coverage on social media of the 2022 protests over the death in morality-police custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini. Shafiei was placed in solitary confinement in ward 2A of Tehran’s Evin Prison, which is run by intelligence unit of the IRGC, according to news reports. Security forces confiscated her personal devices during the arrest. The journalist was released on bail on February 7, 2023.
At her August 2023 trial and sentencing, Shafiei was found guilty of spreading propaganda and colluding and assembling against national security by Judge Iman Afshari of Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court. During the trial, the judge cited her social media posts as evidence against her, the exile-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported. In early September 2023, the sentence, which also included a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on participating in any political group or assembly, was upheld on appeal.
On November 19, 2023, Shafiei was arrested after responding to a court summons to begin serving her sentence, according to HRANA. Shafiei was temporarily released in late February 2024 due to unspecified health issues.
On September 6, 2024, she was again taken into custody to serve the remainder of her sentence, HRANA reported, despite her medical issues.
Shafiei was released from Evin Prison on February 9, 2025. No details about the conditions of her release have been made public.
CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in late 2024 for comment on the cases of imprisoned Iranian journalists, including Shafiei, but did not receive a response.