Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, shown here speaking during a conference in 2005, saw her long prison sentence suspended on Sunday and has been transferred to a Tehran hospital, her foundation announced. File Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA-EFE
Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has had her long prison sentence suspended and is now in a Tehran hospital, her foundation announced Sunday.
Narges, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison on charges of spreading “propaganda” against Iran’s Islamic regime, was granted a suspension of her 18-year sentence and transferred by ambulance from a hospital in Zanjan to Tehran Pars Hospital where she will be treated by her own medical team, the foundation said.
“On behalf of the Narges Foundation and her family, we thank the international community for their unwavering solidarity,” the group wrote in a social media post.
“However, a suspension is not enough; Narges Mohammadi requires permanent, specialized care,” they added. “We must ensure she never returns to prison to face the 18 years remaining on her sentence.
“Now is the time to demand her unconditional freedom and the dismissal of all charges. No human and women’s rights activists should ever be imprisoned for their peaceful work.”
Mohammadi’s attorney Mostafa Nili said the order suspending her sentence was issued after a determination by Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization that she requires “specialized care outside of prison under the supervision of her own medical team due to multiple illnesses.”
The renowned activist has a history of heart attacks, chest pain, high blood pressure, as well as spinal disc issues, and her detention has been denounced by supporters as a human rights violation.
in a career of human rights advocacy beginning in the 1990s, Mohammadi has been arrested by the Islamic regime 13 times, convicted her five times and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes, her backers say.
