Iran jails Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi for another six months

Iranian authorities added six months to the human rights defender’s prison sentence and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadiaccording to a group advocating for her re-release.

Ms Mohammadi was sentenced on October 19 on charges of “insubordination and resistance to orders” in prison. Free Narges Coalition the statement says.

It is contained in IranThe notorious Evin prison, which houses political prisoners and those with ties to the West.

After completing a. political prisoner In August, Ms. Mohammadi staged a protest in the women’s section of the prison, the organization said, leading to her additional prosecution.

Mohammadi was already serving a 30-month sentence, to which another 15 months were added in January. The Iranian government did not recognize her additional sentence.

Ms Mohammadi, 52, has been arrested and jailed several times since 1998 for her human rights work, including advocating civil disobedience against the compulsory hijab. In 2016, she was sentenced to 16 years in prison for campaigning against the death penalty. She was released in 2020 and then returned to prison in 2021. She has since reported on the abuse and solitary confinement of women in prison.

Ms Mohammadi, seen as a beacon of hope for the women-led protests, was a figurehead – despite being in prison at the time – of the protests that followed death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini, was in police custody after she was detained for allegedly not wearing her hijab in a manner deemed appropriate by authorities.

The mass protests lasted for months and represented one of the most significant and widely publicized threats to Iran’s theocratic regime in recent years.

She won Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 – for “courageously fighting for freedom and human rights over three decades, and for leading as a new wave of protests swept across Iran.”

As the second Iranian woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Ms Mohammadi follows in the footsteps of Shirin Ebadi, who also became the first Muslim woman to receive the award when she was honored for her advocacy for the rights of women, children and refugees. Ms Mohammadi is also the 19th woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

The honor sparked anger within the Iranian government after they hounded her for decades in a campaign to minimize her influence. This was condemned by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mohammadi was already serving a 30-month sentence, to which another 15 months were added in January. The Iranian government did not recognize her additional sentence.

The Free Narges Coalition said Ms Mohammadi’s health had deteriorated significantly during her time behind bars. She suffers from cardiovascular disease, the report said.

Iran has not commented on the latest verdict.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.