A 33-year-old Iranian blogger, Soda Ebrahimi Shamsabadi, has been sentenced to death after being convicted of “corruption on earth” over alleged anti-government activities, including insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Shamsabadi was accused of insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, engaging in media and propaganda activities deemed hostile to national security, and cooperating with governments considered hostile to Iran. 
According to Iran International, prosecutors also accused her of photographing a site where a missile had struck and sending the image to a Persian-language media outlet based outside Iran.
Shamsabadi, who was raised in Tehran and later lived in Bandar Abbas, has been held at Bandar Abbas Prison since March. She reportedly spent 20 days in solitary confinement.
During the January protests, she used social media to document alleged killings and abuses linked to the unrest. In one post, she said photographs, videos, documents and eyewitness accounts existed to establish what had occurred.
Her final Instagram post, published on February 23, appeared to acknowledge the possibility that she could die.
Addressing her more than 10,000 followers, Shamsabadi wrote that if she were no longer alive, they should know that she had chosen the path she believed in.
Her sentencing comes amid growing international concern over the use of capital punishment in Iran, particularly against protesters and government critics.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has warned that the increasing use of death sentences in Iran is intended to create fear and suppress dissent.
Iran Human Rights says at least 29 people arrested during the January protests have been executed since March. Meanwhile, the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has documented 950 executions in Iran so far this year.
Rights groups have repeatedly condemned Iran’s use of the death penalty, warning that capital punishment is increasingly being used against political dissidents and protesters.
