Iran Nobel laureate taken to hospital after ‘violent arrest’

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi was taken to hospital after being beaten when she was arrested last week, her family says.

The 53-year-old human rights activist told them in a phone call on Sunday that she was brought to an emergency department twice after being “attacked by plain clothed agents with severe and repeated baton blows to the head and neck”, according to the Narges Foundation.

There was no comment from Iranian authorities, but they have said she was detained for making “provocative remarks” at a memorial ceremony in the city of Mashhad on Friday.

The Nobel Committee and award-winning film-maker Jafar Panahi are among those calling for her release.

Ms Mohammadi, the vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her activism against female oppression in Iran and promoting human rights.

She has spent more than 10 years of her life in prison. Since 2021, she has been serving a 13-year sentence on charges of committing “propaganda activity against the state” and “collusion against state security”, which she denied.

In December 2024, she was given a temporary release from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on medical grounds.

She has continued campaigning while undergoing treatment.

On Friday, she gave a speech at a memorial ceremony in Mashhad for Khosrow Alikordi, a human rights activist and lawyer who was found dead earlier this month in what human rights groups described as “suspicious” circumstances.

According to the Narges Foundation, eyewitnesses cited by Ms Mohammadi’s family said that she was attacked by around 15 plainclothes agents at the memorial, and that some were seen pulling her hair and beating her with clubs and batons.

On Sunday evening, Ms Mohammadi made a brief phone call to her family and told them that “the intensity of the blows was so heavy, forceful, and repeated that she was taken to the hospital emergency room twice”, a statement said.

“She emphasised that she does not even know which security authority is currently detaining her, and that no explanation has been given in this regard. Her physical condition at the time of the call was not good, and she appeared unwell,” it added.

The Narges Foundation cited Ms Mohammadi as saying that she was accused of “co-operating with the Israeli government” and that they had made a death threat, telling her: “We will put your mother into mourning.”

The statement said that two other activists detained at the memorial ceremony, Sepideh Gholian and Pouran Nazemi, were also beaten by the plainclothes agents.

Mashhad prosecutor Hasan Hematifar told reporters on Saturday that Ms Mohammadi was among 39 people arrested.

He said that she and Khosrow Alikordi’s brother, Javad, had encouraged those present “to chant norm-breaking slogans” and “disturb the peace”.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Friday that it was deeply concerned by what it called the “brutal arrest” of Ms Mohammadi and called on Iranian authorities to “ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions”.

Jafar Panahi, fellow film-maker Mohammad Rasoulof and more than a dozen other activists said in a joint statement that what happened at Alikordi’s memorial ceremony “was a stark reflection of the worrying state of freedom and security, and, consequently, the inefficiency and lack of accountability of the authorities in today’s Iran”.