Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2023, temporarily released from prison on medical grounds

The journalist was rewarded last year for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”. The Nobel committee called for his permanent release.

Iranian activist and journalist Narges Mohammadi, winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, has been temporarily released from prison on medical grounds, her lawyer announced on Wednesday December 4 on X. “According to the opinion of the forensic doctor, the Tehran prosecutor’s office suspended the execution of Narges Mohammadi’s sentence for three weeks and she was released from prison”said Mostafa Nili.

“The reason for his release is his physical condition after the removal of a tumor and a bone graft, carried out 21 days ago”he added. “The removed tumor was benign, but [elle] should be examined every three months.”

Narges Mohammadi, who spent much of the last decade in detention, was rewarded in October 2023 for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”. According to her husband, she left prison chanting ‘”Women, life, freedom”the emblematic slogan of the protest movement born after the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.

The 52-year-old journalist was imprisoned in a jail in Tehran, capital of the Islamic Republic. On Wednesday, the Nobel committee called on Iranian authorities to permanently release her, “so that she receives adequate medical treatment for her illnesses”according to the president of the institution, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, during a press conference in Oslo.

The journalist and activist demanded in March “a systematic and global pressure” against Iran, in a statement read by an NGO during debates at the United Nations Human Rights Council. “I am speaking to you with great concern”she said in her statement read by the NGO Ensemble contre la penalty de mort, during debates at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “With the recent wave of protests and movements in favor of women’s lives and freedom, repression has intensified”she continued.