Najmeh Amini, a 23-year-old accounting student held in Mashhad Central Prison (Vakilabad), has been sentenced to death on a charge of “insulting the Prophet” over a post she published on social media. Iran Human Rights reaffirmed the sentence on Monday, 12 October 2026.
According to Iran International, the sentence was issued by Branch 6 of the Criminal Court One of Razavi Khorasan Province, presided over by Javad Asian Yazd. The court rejected the defence arguments of Amini and her lawyer, and the sentence is not yet final; if it is appealed, the case goes to the Supreme Court. According to the same report, the charge against her was initially “insulting the Imams” and was later changed to “insulting the Prophet”.
Najmeh Amini’s arrest and charges
In Bahman 1404 (late January to February 2026), after posting several protest stories on Instagram, Najmeh Amini was violently arrested in Ferdowsi Bazaar in Mashhad. The human rights organisation Hengaw reported that throughout her detention she was denied access to a lawyer of her choice. Sources with knowledge of the case told Iran International that she was beaten and pressured to confess.
According to Hengaw, Branch 1 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court had earlier sentenced her, in a separate case, to 12 years, six months and one day in prison on a charge of “acting against national security”. The list of charges that the security bodies have attributed to her also includes “moharebeh” (“waging war against God”), “collaboration with Israel” and “insulting the leadership”.
In a phone call from prison, recorded in mid-September and published later, she said she had heard her death sentence two days earlier, after about eight months of uncertainty. In that voice message she said: “I am an innocent girl.”
A death sentence for writing online
The death sentence against a young woman over something she wrote on social media comes as the Islamic Republic has pushed the number of executions over the past year to its highest level in a decade. According to HRANA, at least 2,003 people were executed between October 2025 and October 2026. At the same time, UN Special Rapporteur Gina Romero has announced that she is joining the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign.
Human rights bodies have repeatedly warned that charges such as “insulting the Prophet” and “insulting the sacred” are a tool for suppressing freedom of expression, and that confessions extracted without a lawyer present have no legal validity.
Najmeh Amini has been sentenced to death over a few social media posts, without access to a lawyer of her choice.
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