Iran re-arrests reporter who interviewed father of Mahsa Amini

Nazila Maroufian moved to prison known for poor conditions days after her release

Iranian journalist Nazila Maroufian has been moved outside of Tehran to Qarchak women's prison. AFP

Iranian authorities have once again arrested a journalist who interviewed Mahsa Amini's father two days after her release from jail, activists said on Tuesday.

Nazila Maroufian was released from Tehran's Evin prison on Sunday and took to social media to post a picture of herself without a headscarf, which women are legally required to wear in public in Iran.

“Don't accept slavery – you deserve the best!” she wrote in her posts.

She has since been detained and moved outside of Tehran to Qarchak women's prison, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said.

Qarchak prison is known for its poor conditions. Former inmates include Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who said Iran is “incentivised” to take hostages, following a US prisoner release.

Maroufian's arrest comes a month ahead of the anniversary of Ms Amini's death, which sparked the largest protest movement in Iran in decades and presented a serious threat to the regime.

Families of the more than 500 protesters killed since Ms Amini's death have said authorities have continued to pressure them into silence and have warned them against gathering to remember their loved ones.

Ms Amini's family have also been attacked. Authorities previously vandalised her tombstone and placed the family under house arrest as thousands gathered to remember her last autumn.

Journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who first reported on her death, could face the death penalty.

Arrested in November, the two women were charged with corruption on earth, propaganda against the state and conspiring against national security.

Maroufian, from Ms Amini's hometown of Saqqez, published an interview with Ms Amini's father in October.

In the interview, he accused Iranian authorities of lying about his daughter's death in morality police custody.

The journalist 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.

Evin is home to a large number of activists, lawyers and journalists and is the country's most high-profile prison.

She is not the first person to be arrested again shortly after being released.

Sepideh Gholian was re-arrested in March, hours after her release from Evin prison, where she had spent the previous four years.

In a video posted online, she was seen chanting slogans against Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei outside the prison gates.