A Khorasan Razavi court sentenced Najmeh Amini to death over a social media post.

The death sentence is what The Guardian and the Center for Human Rights in Iran reported a trial court imposed. It is not a ruling by Iran's Supreme Court. The Guardian said the sentence remains subject to that appeal. An arrest during January's protests, in The Guardian, and a Feb. 3 arrest at a Mashhad shopping center, in the center's account of the Khorasan newspaper, are not the same arrest. The exact words of the post are not in either story.

The Guardian reported Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in a story last modified at 6:52 a.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 30, that Najmeh Amini, a 23-year-old accounting student, was sentenced to death for blasphemy over a social media post. The Guardian said she is held in Vakilabad prison in the north-east city of Mashhad, and that a criminal court and a revolutionary court, in separate cases, sentenced her to death and to more than 12 years. The Guardian said a source close to her family told Human Rights Activists in Iran that the death sentence was on a charge of sab ol-nabi, insulting the Prophet, and that she was reportedly arrested after monitoring by Iran's cyber police, Fata. The Guardian said the exact content of the posts has not been publicly disclosed. The Guardian said the other sentence is 12 years, six months, and one day, on charges including acting against national security and spreading propaganda against the regime.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran reported Oct. 19, 2026, that the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office sent the case to Branch 6 of the Khorasan Razavi Province Criminal Court One, and that Judge Javad Asiyan Yazd sentenced her to death for sabb al-nabi. The center said the court did not report the date of that sentence. The center said Branch One of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court imposed the 12-year, six-month, and one-day term, on charges including acting against national security and propaganda against the regime. The Guardian did not print the branch numbers or the judge's name. The center published a translated audio message it said Amini recorded at Mashhad Central Prison on Sept. 18, 2026. In that translation she said she was sentenced to death on Sept. 16, 2026, at the Revolutionary Court's Criminal Division, Branch 6, by Judge Asiyan. Branch 6 of the Criminal Court One, in the center's account of the docket, and the Revolutionary Court's Criminal Division, Branch 6, in the translated audio, are not the same court name. Vakilabad prison, in The Guardian, and Mashhad Central Prison, in the audio dateline, are the names those accounts use for where she is held.

The Guardian reported that in the recording she said, "I do not want to make a hero out of myself today. I only want one thing: be my voice." The center's translation of the same appeal is, "Today I don't want to make myself a hero. I want only one thing: be my voice." The Guardian also quoted her saying, "I am an innocent young girl with so many hopes and dreams," and that her parents wait for her. The center's translation says she asked lawyers, legal scholars, human rights groups, and the United Nations to examine the case. Those sentences are her appeal in the recording the two outlets published. They are not a court ruling.

The Guardian said she was arrested by security forces during January's nationwide protests. The center, citing the Khorasan newspaper, reported she was arrested Feb. 3, 2026, at Ferdowsi Shopping Center in Mashhad after cyber-police monitoring, and that the paper described the accusation as posts insulting the Shia imams. An arrest during January's protests and an arrest on Feb. 3 at a shopping center are not the same account. The Guardian said that, according to Khorasan, Amini told the court she had posted the remarks while hallucinating after taking psychedelic mushrooms with friends, and that the defense called it a slip of the tongue. The center reported the same account from that paper, and added that she told the court she had been affected by the uprising. The Guardian reported the presiding judge rejected the defense and asked, "Why, in that same hallucinatory state, did you not insult other individuals or opponents of the regime, such as America and Israel?" The center reported the judge asked why, if she had been under the influence, she had not insulted other people or opponents of the Islamic Republic, such as the United States and Israel. The mushroom account and the slip-of-the-tongue argument are what the two outlets say she and her lawyer put to the court. The judge's question is what they say the court asked in response.

The Guardian said article 262 of Iran's Islamic penal code makes insulting the Prophet Muhammad or revered Shia figures punishable by death, and that article 263 provides exemptions for statements made while intoxicated or without deliberate intent, though up to 74 lashes can still follow in some of those circumstances. The center printed a longer list from article 263: duress, carelessness, mistake, intoxication, anger, a slip of the tongue, not understanding the words, or quoting someone else, with the same ceiling of 74 lashes. The Guardian said the death sentence is not final and remains subject to appeal before Iran's Supreme Court. The center said international law limits capital punishment to the most serious crimes and called for the sentence to be overturned. That is the center's argument. The sentence The Guardian reported is the trial court's sentence. The Supreme Court appeal is the review neither story says has been decided. The Guardian reported blasphemy death sentences remain relatively rare, and that the last case it cited was the May 8, 2023 executions of Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli-Zare after convictions tied to social media.