Iran sentences three journalists to prison, fines and internal exile

Hengaw – Thursday, December 18, 2025

Iran’s judiciary has sentenced three journalists in Lorestan and Tehran provinces to prison terms, monetary fines and compulsory residence in remote areas. The convictions are linked to their reporting and publication of critical content.

According to information obtaomer by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights Majid Beiranvand and Ehsan Moeidi-Kia, journalists from Lorestan Province, were each sentenced to one year in prison and one year of compulsory residence in Marvast County, in Yazd Province, in separate but related cases.

The rulings followed their criticism of the governor of Lorestan Province and the publication of a registered public campaign from Iran’s official Karzar platform on a Telegram channel.

Beiranvand is the licence holder and editor-in-chief of the weekly publication Horo and manages the “Voice of Lorestan” pages on Telegram and Instagram, which together have more than 40,000 followers.

In a separate case, Hossein Kazemi, a journalist covering social affairs in Qods County, west of Tehran, was sentenced by Branch 101 of Criminal Court II in Qods to 14 months in prison and a fine of 80 million rials.

The sentence followed Kazemi’s reporting on the allocation and transfer of properties by the Endowments and Charity Affairs Office of Qods County, after the head of that office filed a complaint against him.

Kazemi had previously been summoned by Branch Two of the Qods County Prosecutor’s Office on charges including “spreading public anxiety” and “insulting and defaming officials and state agents.”