The opening of Niloufar Hamedi's trial comes a day after another female journalist, Elaheh Mohammadi, appeared in court after months of detention for covering Amini's death and its aftermath.

Protests erupted across Iran after Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died on September 16 following her arrest in Tehran for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women.

"Today's court session was devoted to the reading of the indictment and the written and oral answers of the client to the questions of the judge," Hamedi's lawyer, Parto Borhanpour, told the reformist Shargh newspaper, where she worked.

"There was no time for the oral defence of the lawyers," she said, adding however they were able to present the court with their objections and requests.

The defence objected to "Hamedi's lack of access to a lawyer during her detention" and called for the trial to be held "publicly".

The pair are being tried separately behind closed doors in Tehran and could face the death penalty after being charged in November with propaganda against the state and conspiring against national security.

Hamedi's lawyers also objected to her ongoing detention despite "the completion of the preliminary investigation stage".

Hamedi, 30, was detained on September 20 after reporting from the hospital where Amini had spent three days in a coma before her death.

Mohammadi, a journalist at another reformist publication Ham Miham, was taken into custody on September 29 after she travelled to Amini's hometown of Saqez in Kurdistan province to report on her funeral which turned into a protest.

On Monday, Mohammadi's lawyer Shahab Mirlohi told AFP his client's first court session was "good and positive".

Ham Miham cited Mirlohi as saying the lawyers present in court were not allowed a defence of their client, a charge denied by the judiciary on Tuesday.

"In an illegal act, one of the defendant's lawyers made false statements regarding the details of the court session in an interview with the media," said the judiciary's Mizan Online website.

During last year's protests, which Tehran had labelled foreign-incited "riots", thousands were arrested, and hundreds killed, including dozens of security personnel.