Iran Nobel winner could be re-arrested at any moment: lawyer
Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her two-decade fight for human rights in the Islamic republic, was released from Tehran's Evin prison on December 4 after an operation to remove a benign tumour. She is also suffering from other ailments.
She had been due to go back to jail on December 25 when the three-week leave period expired but her Iranian legal team asked for an extension, a move backed by a medical committee but which has yet to be approved by prosecutors.
For now, Mohammadi remains at liberty but in a state of limbo in the absence of a response by Iranian authorities to the request, the France-based lawyer for her family, Chirinne Ardakani, told AFP.
"This is a cruel strategy deployed deliberately by the authorities," she said.
She said authorities aim "to create confusion about the legal status of Narges Mohammadi" and "to intensify the psychological war against her since she can be arrested at any moment".
Ardakani said Mohammadi could be charged in a new case with refusing to comply with the terms of her prison leave due to the confusion.
Her release from Evin prison marked the first time Mohammadi, who has spent much of the past decade behind bars, has been free since she was arrested in November 2021.
Even in prison she continued campaigning, notably against the Islamic republic's obligatory dress code for women including the hijab, and in support of the 2020-2023 women-led protests against the authorities.
She has also campaigned during her stint outside of prison and travelled to the northeastern city of Mashhad where she issued a video message outside the city's Vakilabad prison which rights groups say is used to house political prisoners alongside other detainees.
"I feel as though a part of me has been left behind on the other side of these cold walls," she said in the message, standing outside the prison and defiantly not wearing the Islamic headscarf.
"I have come to stand in front of the walls of Vakilabad prison to honour each and every one of my brothers and sisters and to remember those who remain behind these walls."