The capital conviction rests on the charge of sabb-e nabi, or insulting the Prophet, which carries the mandatory death penalty under Article 262 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code. This provision extends to insults against the Prophet Muhammad, the Twelve Shia Imams, and Fatima. In a separate proceeding before the Mashhad Revolutionary Court, Amini was reportedly sentenced to 12 years, six months, and one day in prison on charges related to national security and propaganda.
During her trial, Amini’s defense invoked statutory exemptions listed in Article 263 of the Penal Code, which mitigate the death penalty if statements were made under coercion, inadvertence, error, intoxication, or anger. In her final defense, Amini stated she had consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms with friends and posted the content while in a hallucinatory state. The presiding judge, Javad Asian-Yazd of Branch 6 of the Khorasan Razavi Criminal Court One, rejected these arguments, questioning how she could have been under the influence yet specifically targeted religious figures rather than political opponents like the United States or Israel.
Discrepancies exist regarding the timeline of Amini’s detention. HRANA reported that security forces detained her on January 31, 2026, at the Ferdowsi Shopping Center in Mashhad during widespread anti-government demonstrations. Conversely, the Iranian newspaper Khorasan reported on October 7 that Amini was arrested on February 3, 2026, following an investigation by the Cyber Police. It remains unclear whether these dates refer to separate arrests, different stages of the same investigation, or reporting inconsistencies.
Human rights organizations argue that imposing the death penalty for expression violates Iran’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Tehran ratified in 1975. Article 6 of the ICCPR restricts capital punishment to “the most serious crimes,” a category the UN Human Rights Committee interprets as limited to intentional killing. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Iran Human Rights, stated that sentencing a young woman to death for social media expression is an “extremely alarming development” that risks expanding the death penalty’s application to peaceful online speech.
Executions for blasphemy in Iran remain rare compared to other capital offenses. The last recorded executions for such charges occurred on May 8, 2023, when Yousef Mehrdad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare were executed. The current case has drawn calls for an immediate moratorium on all executions and for the international community to demand the reversal of Amini’s sentence.
The next expected development is the review of Amini’s case by Iran’s Supreme Court, where her appellate arguments will be considered before any potential execution can proceed.
