Iran Jails Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi For 6 Years

An Iranian court has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to six years in prison, her lawyer, Mostafa Nili, told AFP on Sunday.

“She has been sentenced to six years in prison for gathering and collusion to commit crimes,” Nili said, adding that the court also imposed a two-year ban on her leaving the country.

Mohammadi was further handed a one-and-a-half-year prison sentence for propaganda activities and ordered into two years of internal exile in the city of Khosf, in the eastern province of South Khorasan. Under Iranian law, jail sentences are served concurrently.

Nili expressed hope that, given Mohammadi’s health challenges, she could be temporarily released on bail to receive medical treatment. He added that the verdict was not final and could still be appealed.

Over the past 25 years, the 53-year-old activist has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her outspoken opposition to Iran’s use of the death penalty and the mandatory dress code for women.

Mohammadi has spent much of the past decade in prison and has not seen her twin children, who live in Paris, since 2015.

In December 2024, she was released for three weeks on medical grounds linked to “her physical condition after the removal of a tumour and a bone graft,” according to her lawyer.

Despite her incarceration, the Nobel laureate has continued to protest, staging demonstrations in the prison yard and embarking on hunger strikes.

Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, mainly for her campaign against capital punishment in Iran. Her children accepted the award on her behalf as she was in prison at the time.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say Iran carries out more executions annually than any other country except China, for which no reliable figures are available.