BEIRUT, Lebanon: Nobel Peace laureate and activist Narges Mohammadi was finally shifted to a Tehran hospital, her foundation said on Sunday.
Her transfer comes after days of pleading by her family and others who described her condition as critical, more than a week after she collapsed in prison.
Her foundation said she has been temporarily released from prison on bail, which means her sentence is paused for now. However, it is not clear how long this suspension will last.
Mohammadi had been in Zanjan prison since December. On May 1, she fainted twice and was taken to a local hospital.
In a statement shared with The Associated Press, her foundation said that just suspending her sentence is not enough. They said she needs long-term, specialized medical care. They also said efforts should be made to ensure she never goes back to prison to serve the remaining 18 years of her sentence, and called for her full freedom and all charges to be dropped.
Her lawyer in Iran, Mostafa Nili, said on social media that the decision to transfer her came after government medical examiners confirmed that, because of her many health problems, she needs to continue treatment outside prison under her own medical team.
Iranian authorities have not yet commented on the situation.
Her brother, Hamidreza Mohammadi, who lives in Oslo, said that earlier medical advice to move her to Tehran had been blocked, and he blamed Iran’s intelligence agency for that. After the latest development, he said he feels relieved.
Mohammadi, 53, is a human rights activist and a supporter of women’s rights. She won the Nobel Prize in 2023 while she was in prison and has been jailed many times in her life. She was most recently arrested in Mashhad.
Her family said her health has worsened in prison, partly because she was badly beaten when she was arrested. She had a heart attack in March and also has a blood clot in her lung, which requires ongoing treatment and monitoring.
While in the cardiac care unit at a hospital in Zanjan, her blood pressure has been very unstable, going from very low to very high. She has needed oxygen to breathe and has been unable to speak, according to her brother.
The Nobel committee has urged Iranian authorities to quickly move her to her own medical team in Tehran, warning that without proper treatment, her life is in danger.
