Iran reporter who interviewed Amini's father says freed from jail

An Iranian journalist handed a two-year jail sentence after interviewing the father of the woman whose custody death sparked months of protests said on Sunday she had been released from prison.

After her release from Tehran's Evin prison, Nazila Maroufian defiantly posted a picture of herself on social media without a headscarf, flouting the country's strict dress code for women.

"Don't accept slavery, you deserve the best," she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram. The picture showed her clutching flowers in one hand with her other hand raised in a victory sign.

Maroufian, whose age is given by Persian media outside Iran as 23, in October published an interview on the Mostaghel Online news site with Amjad Amini.

He is the father of Mahsa Amini, whose death in custody last September after she allegedly violated the dress rules sparked months of protests.

In the interview, Amjad Amini accused authorities of lying about the circumstances of his daughter's death.

Iranian authorities have indicated she died because of a health problem, but the family and activists have said she suffered a blow to the head while in custody.

Maroufian, a Tehran-based journalist but from Amini's hometown of Saqez in Kurdistan province, was first arrested in November.

She was later released but in January said she had been sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for five years, on charges of propaganda against the system and spreading false news.

According to rights groups, Maroufian was again ordered back to Evin prison in early July.

There was major concern over her health earlier this month when supporters said she had been taken from prison to hospital.

But in her social media post, Maroufian denied having had a heart attack and said she had suffered "shortness of breath and heart palpitations" and was now "fine".

Iran has reacted harshly to reporting inside the country on the Amini case.