At any moment, journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi could be rounded up and thrown back in jail for work that helped spark a massive protest movement in Iran.

The pair, first arrested in 2022, have been out on bail since January, when they appealed their sentences on three charges related to their coverage of the death of a young woman in police custody.

This week, they learned their sentences have been reduced by nearly half after one of the charges was dropped. But they're still facing five years behind bars — a sentence Iranian authorities say could be carried out at any time.

The delay between issuing the sentence and carrying it out is "a form of intimidation," says Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the U.S.-based Center for Human Rights in Iran

"That means they keep them in a limbo," he told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "They are not going to have the freedom to carry out their work, and they will be constantly under watch."

Breaking the news of Mahsa Amini's death

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, died on Sept. 16, 2022, just days after she was arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly violating the country's mandatory headscarf law.

Iran has consistently maintained she died from a heart attack, but her loved ones and supporters say she was beaten to death by police. 

Her death triggered a wave of protests across the country in what has become known as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. It marks Iran's biggest domestic unrest since the 1979 revolution that brought its clerical rulers to power.

News of the death first spread through Iran thanks in large part to early reporting by Hamedi, who worked for the newspaper Shargh, and Mohammadi, who worked for the newspaper Ham-Mihan. 

Hamedo and Mohammadi were arrested in 2022 and later sentenced to 13 and 12 years, respectively, on charges of colluding against national security, propaganda against the system and collaborating with the U.S. government. 

On Sunday, judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir told a news conference the pair have been acquitted on the collusion charge, but the other charges stand. 

WATCH | 1 year after Mahsa Amini's death:

Defiance, crackdowns in Iran a year after the protests

Mahsa Amini’s death while in the custody of Iran’s morality police for wearing her headscarf too loosely triggered months of protests in what became one of the biggest threats the Islamic regime has ever faced. One year later, CBC’s Ellen Mauro breaks down what’s changed and what hasn’t.

"These women have committed no crime. They are journalists who are doing their job. And, effectively, by sentencing them to such a lengthy prison term, they are criminalizing journalism," Ghaemi said.

"The Islamic Republic continues to target people associated with the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and wants to put them away, imprison them, and put an end to this movement."

Reporters Without Borders, the International Press Institute and the Committee to Protect Journalists have all called for Hamedi and Mohammadi to be cleared of all charges.

No amnesty for prominent activists 

There was hope that might happen last year when Iran announced its supreme leader had granted amnesty for some 22,000 people arrested in the anti-government protests.

But since then, the non-profit group Human Rights Watch says, "numerous activists, including feminist activists and women's rights defenders, remain in prison or face imminent imprisonment."

That includes Narges Mohammadi, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize behind bars in 2023 for her role in the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. 

A longtime Iranian human rights activist, she is currently serving multiple sentences amounting to about 12 years imprisonment on charges that include spreading propaganda against the state.

Her family says Iranian authorities punished her for winning the Nobel, cutting off her communication with loved ones and repeatedly denying her requests for health care.

But her brother Hamidreza Mohammadi says it hasn't broken her spirit.

"Narges's love for life, freedom and happiness is not something that can be taken away from her," he told As It Happens last week, on the anniversary of his sister's Nobel victory.

"She sings in the prison. She dances with the other women in the prison."

How a Middle East war could impact prisoners

Ghaemi says he worries if tensions continue escalating between Iran and Israel that war will break out, and Iran will crack down even harder on dissidents inside its own country.

He noted that in 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War, Iran executed thousands of political prisoners.

"We have seen them that whenever they are cornered and engaged in international conflict or war, they turn their attention first and foremost in taking revenge on their domestic opponents and Iranian people. They see them as the most vulnerable," he said.

"We believe that the more people understand the interconnection between the two, hopefully … all leverage would be used to prevent it from repeating its history."

With files from Reuters and The Associated Press. Interview with Hadi Ghaemi produced by Nishat Chowdhury