Najmeh Amini, the 23-year-old girl sentenced to death in Iran for offending “the Prophet”

A 23-year-old economics student, Najmeh Amini, was sentenced to death in Iran after publishing some posts deemed blasphemous on social networks.

The girl was arrested for the first time during the national protests last January, after an online monitoring activity carried out by the Iranian postal police (Fata). According to what was reported by the organization Human Rights Activists in Iran, the death sentence was formulated on charges of sab ol-nabi (“insulting the Prophet”). The specific content of the posts was not made public. The 23-year-old was also sentenced to 12 years, 6 months and one day in prison for charges related to national security and propaganda against the regime.

She is now detained in Vakilabad prison, in Mashhad. In an audio message released last month, Amini declared herself innocent and appealed to the international community and the United Nations to examine her case.

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What the law provides and the student’s defense

According to article 262 of Iran’s Islamic penal code, insulting the Prophet Muhammad or other figures of Shiite Islam is punishable by death. However, the law provides for exceptions: if the offense is committed while intoxicated or without intent, the death sentence can be avoided, but the guilty can be punished with flogging, receiving up to 74 lashes.

According to the Iranian newspaper Khorasan, the young woman defended herself by claiming to have published those posts while she was in the throes of hallucinations after taking hallucinogenic mushrooms with friends. The judge did not want to hear reasons: “Why, in that same hallucinatory state – he allegedly asked the student -, did he not insult other individuals or opponents of the regime, such as America and Israel?”.

The death sentence is not final and the defense will be able to appeal to the Supreme Court of Iran. According to data provided by the NGO Iran Human Rights, death sentences for blasphemy remain a rare event in the country, with the last documented case dating back to May 2023, against a general increase in executions for other crimes.