Two Iranian journalists handed long prison terms for their coverage of the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amina have been granted “temporary release” on bail pending an appeal of their sentences, the country's judiciary said.
Journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elahah Mohammadi -- sentenced to 13 and 12 years, respectively – left Tehran’s Evin Prison on January 14.
SEE ALSO: Special Report: The Protests That Shook Iran's Clerical SystemAccording to Iranian state media reports, the two have been barred from leaving the country.
The two women have been in custody for 17 months, despite global calls for their release.
"Niloofar Hamedi and Elahah Mohammadi are only being punished for covering the news of Mahsa Amini's murder by the Irshad police and her funeral ceremony," United For Iran, a U.S.-based nonprofit managed by activists and former Iranian political prisoners, said in a statement in October 2023.
"Niloofar Hamedi and Elahah Mohammadi are in prison based on baseless accusations,” the statement continued. “The judiciary must cancel these baseless accusations against [them] and other political prisoners."
Hamedi took a photo of Amini's parents embracing in the Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma after she had been taken into police custody for an alleged head-scarf violation.
Hamedi's post of the photo on Twitter was the first media mention of the case and one of her last posts before being arrested days later.
Mohammadi covered Amini's funeral in her hometown of Saghez, which marked the beginning of the mass protests that swept the country following the 22-year-old's death.
SEE ALSO: 'Naked' And Defiant: Diary Of An Iranian ProtesterThose protests were met by a brutal crackdown and became one of the most daunting challenges faced by the Islamist government since Iran's 1979 revolution.
The European Parliament awarded the 2023 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Amini and the Women, Life, Freedom movement that was sparked by her death. Iranian authorities prevented Amini’s parents and brother from traveling abroad in December 2023 to receive the prize.