A 33-year-old Iranian blogger, Soda Ebrahimi Shamsabadi, has reportedly been sentenced to death after being convicted of “corruption on earth” over allegations of insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader and engaging in activities considered hostile to the government.
According to reports, Shamsabadi was accused of conducting media and propaganda activities against national security, working on behalf of hostile governments, and photographing a location where a missile struck before sending the image to a Persian-language media outlet outside Iran. She has been detained at Bandar Abbas Prison since March and reportedly spent 20 days in solitary confinement.
During the January protests, Shamsabadi used social media to document alleged killings and abuses linked to the unrest. In her final Instagram post on February 23, she appeared to acknowledge the possibility of her death, telling her more than 10,000 followers that if she were no longer alive, they should know she had followed a path she believed in.
Her case comes amid growing international concern over executions and death sentences in Iran. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has warned that the increasing use of capital punishment is contributing to a climate of fear and suppressing dissent. Iran Human Rights says at least 29 people arrested during the January protests have been executed since March, while the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has documented 950 executions in Iran so far this year.
