An Iranian court has handed down a six-year prison sentence to Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, as confirmed by her legal representative to AFP on Sunday. The lawyer, Mostafa Nili, disclosed that Mohammadi was convicted for engaging in activities that involved planning and collaborating to commit offenses. Additionally, she was slapped with a two-year travel restriction.
Mohammadi also received a one-and-a-half-year jail term for engaging in propaganda-related endeavors and is set to endure a two-year exile to Khosf in South Khorasan province, as per her lawyer’s statement. In Iran, prison sentences are served concurrently.
Nili expressed optimism that, given Mohammadi’s health challenges, she might be granted temporary release on bail for medical treatment. He highlighted that the verdict is subject to appeal.
Throughout the past 25 years, Mohammadi, aged 53, has consistently faced trials and imprisonment due to her vocal stance against Iran’s use of the death penalty and the enforcement of women’s dress codes. She has spent a significant portion of the last decade incarcerated and has been separated from her twin children residing in Paris since 2015.
In December 2024, Mohammadi was temporarily released for health reasons after undergoing medical procedures. Despite concerns from her legal team that she could be re-incarcerated at any moment, she spent a considerable part of the subsequent year outside prison, actively advocating for her cause.
On December 12, Mohammadi was arrested in Mashhad alongside other activists following her participation in an event honoring a deceased lawyer. Even while in custody, the Nobel laureate continued her activism, staging protests within the prison premises and embarking on hunger strikes.
Mohammadi, born in Zanjan in 1972, studied physics and pursued a career in engineering while simultaneously working as a journalist for various reformist media platforms. In the 2000s, she aligned with the Defenders of Human Rights Center, founded by Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and presently serves as its vice president.
She was imprisoned from May 2015 to October 2020 on charges of orchestrating and leading an unauthorized group advocating for the abolishment of the death penalty in Iran. Mohammadi was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 primarily for her anti-capital punishment activism, with her children accepting the award on her behalf during her incarceration.
According to human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Iran reportedly conducts a high number of executions annually, second only to China, where accurate statistics are not readily available.
