An Iranian court has sentenced Najmeh Amini, a 23-year-old student from Mashhad, to death over a social media post, according to the newspaper Khorasan and rights groups.
Ms Amini, an accounting student, was convicted of "sab ol-nabi", the term for insulting the Prophet Muhammad, according to LBC. The exact content of her post has not been made public, The Week reported.
The death sentence is not final. It can be appealed to the Supreme Court, according to LBC and the Pakistani outlet Minute Mirror.
She was also given a separate prison sentence of 12 years and six months for acting against national security and spreading propaganda, according to LBC and The Week. Some outlets give the term as 12 years, six months and one day.
Ms Amini is being held in Vakilabad prison, also known as Mashhad Central prison, according to LBC and Minute Mirror.
Khorasan reported the case on 7 October and named her only by her initials. It did not say when the verdict was issued, and the date of the sentence has not been made clear.
According to Khorasan, as reported by Minute Mirror, the case was heard by Branch 6 of the Khorasan Razavi Criminal Court. The judge presiding was Javad Asian-Yazd.
Khorasan reported that Ms Amini's lawyer argued that the words were a slip of the tongue. It said Ms Amini told the court she had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms with friends and wrote the post under their influence.
The judge rejected both arguments, according to the same reports. He asked why she had not insulted anyone else in that state, and how she knew where to post.
It is not known whether this account reflects the court's own record. No court document has been published.
Ms Amini was first arrested on 31 January during protests, according to the Indian outlet DNA India, which said The Guardian had also reported the case. LBC and Minute Mirror reported that she was arrested again in February after Iran's cyber police monitored online posts.
An audio recording attributed to Ms Amini was released in September, according to The Week. In it, the speaker says: "I only want one thing: be my voice." The authenticity of the recording has not been independently verified.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the rights group Iran Human Rights, described the sentence as "an extremely alarming development", according to Minute Mirror. He noted that Iran executed two men for blasphemy in 2023.
Iran Human Rights Monitor, another rights group, said Ms Amini had faced months of arbitrary detention, a reported risk of torture and a complete denial of counsel, according to Britbrief. It called for immediate international intervention to stay and overturn the sentence. These claims have not been independently confirmed.
No statement from the Iranian judiciary or the Foreign Ministry had been reported at the time of writing.
Iran's Islamic penal code makes insulting the Prophet a capital offence. A separate article provides exceptions for statements made while intoxicated, in anger or by slip of the tongue, according to LBC.
Protests took place in Iran in January 2026. Rights groups say thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands were arrested. Amnesty International says at least 26 people have been executed for offences related to the protests and at least 60 others remain at risk of execution, according to Britbrief.
The next step is an appeal to the Supreme Court. Rights groups are calling for the sentence to be overturned.
Photo: Possibly by Luigi Pesce (Italian, 1818–1891) / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
