The secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awarded Mohammadi the 2023 prize, expressed concern that the condition of the Iranian human rights activist was worsening after she had suffered a heart attack in prison.
Mohammadi, in her 50s, won the prize while in prison for her campaign to advance women’s rights and abolish the death penalty in Iran.
The activist “was urgently transferred to a hospital in Zanjan today following a catastrophic deterioration of her health, including two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis,” the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said in a statement on its website on Friday.
“This transfer was done as an unavoidable necessity after prison doctors determined her condition could not be managed on-site, despite standing medical recommendations that she be treated by her specialised team in Tehran.”
Her transfer was a “desperate, last-minute” measure that might come too late to address her critical health needs, the foundation said.
Mohammadi was sentenced to a new prison term of seven-and-a-half years, the foundation said in February, weeks before the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began. The Nobel committee at the time called on Tehran to free her immediately.
She was arrested in December after denouncing the death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi. Prosecutor Hasan Hematifar said then she made provocative remarks at Alikordi’s memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad and encouraged those present “to chant norm-breaking slogans” and “disturb the peace”.
On Friday morning, Mohammadi fainted after days of dangerously high blood pressure and severe nausea, the foundation said. After multiple bouts of vomiting, she blacked out and was moved to the prison medical unit for emergency intravenous fluids.
The activist, who has undergone three angioplasty procedures, faces a “direct and immediate” threat to her right to life, her family said. “We call for all charges to be dropped immediately and for all sentences imposed for her peaceful human rights work to be unconditionally annulled.” (Reuters)
