Iranian student Najmeh Amini sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy

Najmeh Amini, a 23-year-old accounting student, was sentenced to death in September for the blasphemy charge of "sab ol-nabi" after eight months of detention in Vakilabad Prison, Mashhad. She had been arrested on 31 January amid mass protests against Iran’s authoritarian regime, which human-rights groups say resulted in more than 7,000 deaths and thousands of arrests. In addition to the death sentence, Amini received a 12-year, six-month and one-day term for alleged threats to national security and spreading anti-regime propaganda.

A prison-recorded voice message released after her sentencing begged lawyers, activists and the United Nations to intervene. Her case comes weeks after two men were publicly hanged in Isfahan for killing police officers during the same wave of unrest, prompting Amnesty International to decry a widening use of capital punishment to silence dissent.