Iran releases Nobel Peace laureate Narges on medical leave

Iran has released Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi, jailed since November 2021, for three weeks on medical grounds, her lawyer posted on social media.

Over the past quarter century, Narges Mohammadi, 52, has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her vocal campaigning against the Islamic Republic.

"Based on the advice of the examining doctor, the public prosecutor suspended the jail sentence against Narges Mohammadi for three weeks and she was released from prison," Mostafa Nili said on X. "The grounds for her release are her physical condition after the removal of a tumour and a bone graft three weeks ago. "The tumour was benign but she needs check-ups every three months."

Narges Mohammadi's family and supporters swiftly put out a statement protesting that the three weeks' medical leave was not enough.

"A 21-day suspension of Narges Mohammadi's sentence is inadequate. We demand Narges Mohammadi's immediate and unconditional release or at least an extension of her leave to three months," they said in a statement.

"The denial of proper medical care and sufficient recovery time post-surgery has led to the rapid development of bedsores and intensified pain in her back and legs."

Meanwhile, the United Nations called on Wednesday for the immediate and unconditional release of Narges Mohammadi after the Iranian authorities freed her temporarily on medical grounds.

"We reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of Ms Mohammadi, and for all Iranian women and men who are detained or imprisoned for the legitimate exercise of their freedom of expression and other human rights," a UN human rights office spokesman told AFP.

Narges Mohammadi has spent much of the past decade behind bars and has not seen her twin children, who live in Paris, since 2015. She is serving her sentence in the women's section of the capital's Evin prison with around 50 other inmates, according to her husband Taghi Rahmani. In June, she was sentenced to an additional year behind bars for "propaganda against the state." She refused to appear in court for the trial after her request for it to be held in public was rejected.

Born in the northwestern city of Zanjan in 1972, Mohammadi studied physics and pursued a career in engineering alongside work as a journalist for several reformist media outlets.

In the 2000s, she joined the Defenders of Human Rights Center set up by 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, an organisation of which Mohammadi remains vice president.

She was jailed from May 2015 to October 2020 for "forming and leading an illegal group", campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty in Iran.
Agence France-Presse