Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, was taken to hospital after her health suddenly deteriorated in prison, her lawyer and family said Friday.
According to her family, Mohammadi, 54, suffered a heart attack in late March and has been in a weakened state since then, with medical care in prison inadequate to her needs. She received the Nobel Prize for promoting women’s rights and opposing the death penalty, activities that have led to repeated imprisonment by Iranian authorities. She is currently facing a new prison term of 7 1/2 years.
Her lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said she had long suffered from cardiac arrhythmia before her collapse. “She had severe chest pain, and her condition then deteriorated critically,” Nili wrote on X. The Narges Mohammadi Foundation, run by her family, said she was hospitalized “following a catastrophic deterioration of her health, including two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis.” The foundation said prison doctors determined they could not manage her condition and described the transfer as a “desperate, last-minute” measure that might come too late to address her critical needs. Mohammadi has previously undergone three angioplasties.
Her family called for all charges against her “to be dropped immediately and for all sentences imposed for her peaceful human rights work to be unconditionally annulled.”
Mohammadi has been arrested and jailed many times over the past decades, first jailed in 1998 for criticizing the government. Her latest imprisonment followed her December arrest after she denounced the death of human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, whose December death was viewed as suspicious by his family, colleagues and activists. Prosecutors accused Mohammadi of making provocative remarks at Alikordi’s memorial and of urging attendees to voice their concerns. In February, her lawyer reported she was sentenced to an additional six years for conspiracy and 1 1/2 years for propaganda activities and was banned from leaving Iran for two years.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse