The health condition of the Iranian Nobel laureate is ‘very dangerous,’ the husband said
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The family of Iran’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi says he is in critical condition after being transferred to a hospital in Tehran due to illness. “international pressure intensified” due to his deteriorating health.
Mohammadi was removed Zanjan Medical Center of Pars Hospital in Tehran on Sunday, more than a week unconscious in prison, tthe family-run Narges Mohammadi Foundation in a statement on Monday.
The foundation said the 54-year-old rights activist – who has been detained since December in Zanjan prison – was given a suspended prison sentence on bail.
Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, said her current condition was “very dangerous.”
“Narges is suffering from various problems due to the beatings he endured, the 150 days he spent in a closed cell of the Intelligence Department, and the neglect of the authorities,” Rahmani said in a statement sent to CBC News on Monday.
“This neglect was deliberate, and they intended to let Narges die. It was under great pressure that they transferred him to Pars Hospital, and we hope that he will finally receive the proper treatment.”
Mohammadi, a champion of women’s rights, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison and has been arrested several times throughout her career.
His current imprisonment began when he was arrested in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad. It is not clear how long his sentence will be suspended.
His family said that his life has been deteriorating in prison, because he was severely beaten during his arrest. He had a heart attack in March and has had a blood clot in his lung since before his arrest, which requires blood thinners and monitoring to manage it.
Since being taken to the cardiac care unit of Zanjan Hospital, northwest of Tehran, Mohammadi’s blood pressure has been going from very low to very high, and he has been receiving oxygen to breathe and unable to speak, his brother Hamidreza Mohammadi told The Associated Press.
His family requested that he be moved from Zanjan to Tehran for better medical care.
The foundation says Mohammadi will remain in intensive care at the hospital to be treated by his medical team.
There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.
A lawyer, the family asked that the charges be dropped
Chirinne Ardakani, Mohammadi’s France-based lawyer, said the prison suspension was confirmed the mobilization of civil society groups around the world and human rights advocacy efforts against the regime of the Islamic Republic.
“When international attention and pressure increases, the Islamic Republic doesn’t like it. It hurts them. It means people are interfering in what they are doing,” Ardakani told CBC News.
Ardakani said that the same pressure should continue on the government to release all political prisoners who are facing execution or are at risk of execution.
The children of imprisoned Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf on Sunday. They read a defiant letter that Mohammadi smuggled out of his cell, saying to continue resisting the regime.
Mohammadi’s lawyers continue to urge that all charges against him be dropped.
“The temporary suspension of the mother’s sentence is not enough,” he said Ali Rahmani, son of Mohammadi.
“After years of imprisonment, solitary confinement and neglect, his life still hangs in the balance in the CCU. We don’t just want him out of custody for a few days; we want this prosecution to end once and for all.”
Mohammadi was sentenced to a new sentence of 7½ years, the foundation said in February, weeks before the US and Israel began their war with Iran. The Nobel committee at the time asked Tehran to release him immediately.
He was arrested in December after confessing to the murder of the lawyer, Khosrow Alikordi. The prosecutor told reporters that he made offensive remarks at Alikordi’s memorial service.
The Nobel committee called on Iranian authorities to immediately transfer Mohammadi to his dedicated medical team in Tehran, saying “without such treatment, his life remains at risk.”
His son, Rahmani said he needs it “a long time, special care without the dignity of returning to the place that almost killed him.”
