Iran releases Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi on medical leave: lawyer
Iran has released Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi, jailed since November 2021, for three weeks on medical grounds, her lawyer posted on social media.
“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.
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.
Over the past quarter century, Mohammadi, 52, has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her vocal campaigning against Iran’s widespread use of capital punishment and its mandatory dress code for women.
She has spent most of the past decade behind bars.
“The grounds for her release are her physical condition after the removal of a tumour and a bone graft three weeks ago,” Nili said. “The tumour was benign but she needs check-ups every three months.”
In June, Mohammadi 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.
In a letter from prison in September, she condemned the “devastating oppression” of women in Iran.
The letter was published by her foundation to mark the second anniversary of the nationwide protests that followed the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman detained for an alleged breach of the dress code.
Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, primarily for her campaigning against the death penalty in Iran.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say Iran carries out more executions each year than any other country apart from China, for which no reliable figures are available.