The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Wednesday that imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was subjected to beatings and “life-threatening abuse” by Iranian authorities during his arrest and detention.
During her arrest in December, security forces repeatedly beat the activist with wooden sticks and batons, dragged her by the hair and tore off part of her scalp, and beat her in a convoy, the commission said in a statement, citing “credible reports.”
According to the report, she was “kicked repeatedly in the genitals and pelvic area, leaving her unable to sit or move without experiencing severe pain.”
One of Iran’s most prominent human rights activists, Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 and has spent much of the past two decades as an inmate at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
In December 2024, Iranian authorities suspended her sentence to allow her to recover from surgery, but she was arrested again a year later and has remained in custody ever since.
On Saturday, Mohammadi was sentenced to an additional seven years in prison, according to his lawyer.
The new sentence was imposed amid a widespread crackdown on dissent in Iran following mass protests against the regime in January that plunged the country into crisis.
On Sunday, Mohammadi ended a hunger strike she began in early February to protest “unlawful detention, deplorable prison conditions and denial of access to family and lawyers,” according to her foundation, which cited reports that her health was “very worrying.”
In a brief phone call with his lawyer Mostafa Nili on Sunday, Mohammadi said he was hospitalized last week but was returned to a detention center in Mashhad before his treatment was complete.
The family-run foundation said Mohammadi had a history of heart attacks, chest pains, high blood pressure, as well as disc problems and other illnesses.
