A journalist arrested after she interviewed Mahsa Amini’s father has been given a suspended sentence of two years in a penal colony.

The sentence means that Nazila Maroofian, an Iranian journalist, will have to take care not to do anything else to annoy government officials otherwise, the sentence will be activated, and she could be carted off to the penal colony.

She was given the suspended sentence of two years in prison over an interview she did with Mahsa Amini’s father.

Maroofian, who is based in the Iranian capital Tehran but who is from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, the same place as Mahsa Amini, reportedly said on Saturday that she had been sentenced without a court hearing.

She said on Twitter (in Farsi): “According to the decision of the 26th branch of the Revolutionary Court headed by Judge Afshari, I was sentenced to two years in prison, a fine… and a five-year ban from leaving the country.”

She added: “The sentence of two years in prison is suspended for five years.”

She also said that “this verdict was given without a court hearing and defence from me” and that the charges were “propaganda against the regime and spreading fake news”.

Maroofian, who works for the Ruydad 24, had previously said on Sunday, 16th October: “They won’t let me publish my interview a few days ago with the father of Mahsa Amini.

“First, they called my father in the city and said don’t you realise, we pity you, stop your daughter; your daughter is young.

“And then they called me to tell me that my arrest warrant is pending.”

But then her interview, titled “Mahsa Amini’s father: ‘They are lying!'” was published on the Mostaghel Online news site on 19th October.

Mostaghel has since been forced to take down the article, which said at the time that Mahsa’s dad denied his daughter had any underlying health condition.

Mahsa Amini, 22, from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, was on a visit to Tehran when she was arrested by morality police accused of violating hijab rules on 13th September.

She was allegedly beaten while in custody and spent the following days in a coma in the hospital before succumbing in the ICU on 16th September.

The clinic where she was treated said in a now-deleted social media post that she had been admitted brain-dead.

Alleged medical scans of her skull leaked by hackers showed that she had suffered bone fractures, haemorrhages, and brain oedema.

Anti-regime media are claiming that Mahsa’s medical records showing her history of heart disease were faked by the Iranian government.

It is currently believed that about 80 journalists have been detained since the beginning of the protests.