Iran prison guards at Tehran’s Evin Prison caused a chest injury to Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent Iranian human rights activist, after she led a protest against the upcoming death penalties of 30 political prisoners, according to her lawyer Mostafa Nili and Women Press Freedom on Thursday. According to her latest update, the authorities denied hospital care ordered by a prison doctor and her request to meet a forensic doctor to record her injury.
Mohammadi, 52, who has been jailed since November 2021, and other female prisoners staged a protest in the prison yard against the planned execution of 30 political prisoners including Reza Rasaei, a Kurdish man arrested during the 2022 protests. The protest escalated into violence when guards from the Ministry of Intelligence, accompanied by anti-riot prison guards, attempted to suppress the chanting. Mohammadi and several other women were brutally beaten and pushed back into their cells.
Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, who lives in exile in Paris, reported that his wife suffered severe injuries during the attack, including blows to her chest that caused severe breathing difficulties, leading her cellmates to fear she was experiencing cardiac arrest. Despite the prison doctor’s recommendation that she be transferred to a hospital, Mohammadi was only treated in the prison clinic and was denied further medical care.
This violent crackdown comes amid a wave of executions in Iran, which saw 29 prisoners executed over two days, including Rasaei. The United Nations and various human rights organizations have expressed alarm over the escalating use of the death penalty in Iran, with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calling the number of executions in such a short time “alarming.”
Iranian authorities denied any wrongdoing, blaming Mohammadi for instigating the confrontation. The prison administration issued a statement denying that any physical abuse occurred, asserting that Mohammadi and the other inmates had peacefully returned to their cells.
For nine months, Mohammadi has been denied the right to make phone calls or receive visits from her family and lawyer. This latest incident has further exacerbated concerns about her deteriorating health. In addition to the recent injuries, Mohammadi has been suffering from acute back and knee pain, as well as a blocked coronary artery, for which she underwent surgery in 2021.
In June, a group of individual experts, including Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran Javaid Rehman, called for the immediate and unconditional release of Mohammadi, accusing Iran of derogating her right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly with unfair proceedings and lengthy sentences.
Mohammadi is serving multiple sentences, totalling imprisonment of more than 13 years. These charges include several charges of “propaganda activities against the state” in relation to her human rights activism in prison against sexual offenses committed by prison officials. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that her detention is arbitrary.
