PARIS – Iranian Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi has returned to her home in Tehran after being discharged from hospital in the wake of her release on bail, her family and supporters said on May 18.
They warned of the risk of any return to prison for the 2023 laureate, who suffers from a heart condition and whose health deteriorated drastically following her most recent arrest in December.
Ms Mohammadi was sent home on May 17 after 18 days of hospitalisation in Zanjan, where she had been in prison, and then in Tehran, her foundation said in a statement.
Tests in hospital confirmed that heart and blood pressure disorders are directly linked to “prolonged, severe psychological pressure, chronic anxiety, and intense environmental stress”, it said, adding she must not return to prison “under any circumstances”.
“Her recovery demands strict medical supervision outside prison walls,” her daughter Kiana Rahmani said. “Returning her to detention is a death sentence.”
“We must ensure she remains free, all baseless charges against her are permanently dropped, and the persecution ends,” she added.
Ms Kiana, along with her twin brother Ali, are based in Paris and have now not seen their mother for over a decade.
Ms Mohammadi had been released on bail on May 10 while in hospital in Zanjan and transferred to Tehran for medical treatment.
Her supporters had said she was at risk of dying in prison after suffering two suspected heart attacks behind bars.
Her legal team says she has some 18 years still to serve in accumulated sentences on various security-related charges.
Her condition has been affected by the war between Iran and the United States and Israel, with at least three air strikes close to her prison in Zanjan, her supporters and legal team say.
Ms Mohammadi, 54, who has spent much of the past two decades in and out of prison for her activism, was arrested most recently in December after denouncing the Islamic republic at a funeral for a lawyer.
She strongly backed the 2022-2023 protests sparked by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini but was arrested before the major demonstrations in 2026 that erupted in January.
Rights groups say tens of thousands of people have been arrested over the January protests and the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic, with Iran also stepping up executions for convicts seen by rights groups as political prisoners. AFP
