By AFP – Agence France Presse
- Order Reprints
- Print Article
Text size
The temporary release from prison in Tehran for three weeks on medical grounds of Iranian Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi is inadequate, her family and supporters said, urging her unconditional liberty.
“A 21-day suspension of Narges Mohammadi’s sentence is inadequate. We demand Narges Mohammadi’s immediate and unconditional release or at least an extension of her leave to three months,” they said in a statement, describing the measure as “too little, too late”.
Her lawyer Mostafa Nili earlier announced on X her jail sentence had been “suspended” for three weeks and she had been released.
But her supporters said the release did not even amount to a medical furlough and was merely a suspension, meaning she would have to serve “an additional 21 days” on her return to Tehran’s Evin prison.
Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her work campaigning for human rights in Iran, had last month undergone bone surgery, including a bone graft, for a non-malignant growth.
“The denial of proper medical care and sufficient recovery time post-surgery has led to the rapid development of bedsores and intensified pain in her back and legs,” the supporters and family said.
“After over a decade of imprisonment, Narges requires specialised medical care in a safe, sanitary environment — a basic human right,” they added.
Mohammadi has been jailed since November 2021 over several past convictions relating to her advocacy against the obligatory hijab for women and capital punishment in Iran.
She has not seen her Paris-based husband and twin children for several years and has spent much of the last decade in and out of prison.
Behind bars and deprived of the right to speak to her family in France, she had refused to give up campaigning, staging protests in the yard of Evin prison and going on hunger strikes.
cf-sjw/as/jj