Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi returns home after hospital release

Iranian human rights activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has returned to her home after being discharged from hospital, her foundation said.

Mohammadi, 54, was released from Pars Hospital in Tehran on Sunday, the Narges Foundation said on Monday. She was transferred from prison to a hospital in early May after she had two episodes of loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis.

Mohammadi is “scheduled to follow up on her medical complications with her medical team through hospital visits and daily outpatient physiotherapy over the coming weeks”, the statement read, adding that doctors say it is “vital she remains under close medical observation”.

Mohammadi was imprisoned in December after being arrested during a visit to the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad. In February, she was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Her lawyer said six years of that sentence was for “collusion to commit crimes”.

Her family said in February that the activist experienced a sharp decline in her health due to what they alleged was a beating she endured during her arrest in December.

They said multiple men kicked her all over her body. In late March, as she began her sentence, she suffered a heart attack.

Her daughter and co-president of the Narges Foundation, Kiana Rahmani, said in a statement on Monday that returning Mohammadi to prison would be “a death sentence”.

“We must ensure she remains free, all baseless charges against her are permanently dropped, and the persecution ends. Human rights activism is not a crime, and no advocate should ever be imprisoned for it,” Rahmani said.

Mohammadi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

An engineer by training, Mohammadi has been arrested 13 times and convicted on five separate occasions, accumulating sentences exceeding 30 years behind bars.