Nobel committee calls on Iran to free Peace Prize laureate Mohammadi

Mohammadi, who has been imprisoned repeatedly in her three-decade campaign for women's rights, was sentenced to a new prison term

Ali Rahmani, son of Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian human rights activist, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2023, speaks after receiving the award on behalf of his mother at Oslo City Hall, Norway Dec 10, 2023. NTB/Fredrik Varfjell via REUTERS

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Wednesday that it had called on Iran to immediately free activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi from prison.

Mohammadi, 53, who has been imprisoned repeatedly in her three-decade campaign for women's rights, was last week sentenced to a new prison term of 7-1/2 years, a group supporting her said on Sunday.

She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison for her campaign to advance women's rights and abolish the death penalty in the Islamic Republic.

Citing "reliable and well‑documented sources inside Iran," the committee said Mohammadi was violently apprehended in December while attending the funeral of a human-rights lawyer and was subject to physical abuse and ongoing life‑threatening mistreatment.

An Iranian prosecutor at the time of the arrest told reporters that Mohammadi made provocative remarks at the memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad and encouraged those present "to chant norm‑breaking slogans" and "disturb the peace."

The Nobel Committee in a statement on Wednesday said the laureate was subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment in violation of international human rights law.

"Mohammadi's ordeal is yet another grim example of the brutal repression that has followed the mass protests in Iran, where countless women and men have risked their lives to demand freedom, equality and basic human rights," it said.