THE trial has begun in Iran of the lawyer of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd whose death last September triggered a widespread protest movement, a media report said today.

Saleh Nikbakht is charged with “propaganda against the system”, daily Etemad reported.

The first hearing “was on Tuesday and he was notified of the charge of propaganda activity against the regime for having spoken to foreign and local media, concerning the Mahsa Amini affair in particular”, it said.

Saleh’s trial begins nearly a year after the death in custody on September 16 last year of 22-year-old Amini, after she was arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules for women.

If convicted, he faces a prison term of between one and three years.

Etemad reported Nikbakht’s lawyer urged his acquittal, saying that in interviews he “only criticised the running of the country by the authorities”.

At the end of September 2022, Nikbakht indicated Mahsa’s family filed a complaint against the police officers who arrested her.

Dozens of police officers were among the hundreds killed during the protests over Mahsa’s death, which Tehran labelled “riots” fomented by foreign governments.

Authorities made thousands of arrests among protesters and their supporters. – AFP, August 30, 2023.