Iran Temporarily Releases Jailed Nobel Peace Laureate

Photo: The Voice of America

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has been granted leave for three weeks to receive medical care, her lawyer said.

"The reason for this decision is her physical condition following a tumor removal and bone graft surgery that took place 21 days ago," he wrote on X, The Caspian Post reports, citing Iranian media.

Mohammadi, 52, has spent much of the past 20 years in and out of prison. She is currently serving a 13-year sentence in Tehran's Evin prison.

Earlier in October, Mohammadi’s family accused Iran's security and judicial authorities of repeatedly blocking her transfer to a hospital for an angiography procedure, according to a statement they released.

Mohammadi has been arrested, tried, and sentenced to prison multiple times because of her human rights work.

She was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2023 for her three-decade campaign for women's rights in Iran.

The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prize, said he was "deeply worried about her enduring illness and pain".

"We call upon the Iranian authorities to permanently end her imprisonment and ensure that she will get adequate medical treatment for her illnesses," Joergen Watne Frydnes said in a statement.