Iran Nobel winner released on bail for medical treatment: supporters

Prominent Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 27, 2007. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Iranian authorities on Sunday released Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi on bail following growing alarm over her health and she has already been transferred to Tehran for medical treatment, her supporters said.

After 10 days of hospitalization in Zanjan in northern Iran where she had been serving her sentence, Mohammadi “has been granted a sentence suspension on heavy bail”, her foundation said in a statement, without detailing the amount.

It added she had been transferred by ambulance to a hospital in Tehran “to be treated by her own medical team”.

Her supporters had last week warned that Mohammadi, who won the 2023 prize in recognition of her decades of campaigning for human rights in Iran, was at risk of dying on prison after suffering two suspected heart attacks behind bars in Zanjan.

“Narges Mohammadi’s life hangs in the balance,” her Paris-based husband Taghi Rahmani said in a statement.

“While she is currently hospitalized following a catastrophic health failure, a temporary transfer is not enough. Narges must never be returned to the conditions that broke her health,” he added.

Her foundation said Mohammadi needed specialized care and added that “we must ensure she never returns to prison to face the 18 years remaining on her sentence”.

Her Iranian lawyer Mostafa Nili, writing on X, confirmed she has been transferred to Tehran earlier Sunday “following an order halting her sentence for medical treatment”.

‘Unrecognizable’

Mohammadi, 54, who has spent much of the past two decades in and out of prison for her activism, was arrested most recently in December after denouncing the Islamic republic at a funeral for a lawyer.

Already suffering from a heart condition, she had two suspected heart attacks, one on March 24 and another on May 1, in prison in Zanjan, according to her supporters.

After the most recent incident, she was rushed to hospital in Zanjan for treatment but remained under constant guard.

Her Paris based-lawyer Chirinne Ardakani said last week Mohammadi has lost 20 kilograms (44 pounds) in prison, has difficulty speaking and is currently “unrecognizable” from her state before her latest arrest.

Her condition has been affected by the war between Iran and the United States and Israel, with at least three air strikes close to her prison.

Mohammadi strongly backed the 2022-2023 protests sparked by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini but was arrested before the major demonstrations that erupted in January this year.

As well as campaigning against capital punishment and the obligatory headscarf for women, she has also regularly predicted the downfall of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Mohammadi’s twin teenage children Ali and Kiana Rahmani, who live and study in Paris, have not seen their mother for over a decade. They received the Nobel prize on her behalf while she was in jail.