Nobel laureate Mohammadi’s life in Iran’s hands
The head of the Norwegian prize committee stated that the life of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammedi was in the hands of Iranian authorities after her health “seriously deteriorated” and called for her to be handed over to her special medical team.
A foundation run by his family said Muhammadi was transferred from prison to hospital on Friday after “a catastrophic deterioration in his health, including two periods of complete loss of consciousness and a serious heart attack.”
The Narges Mohammadi Foundation said the transfer was “an inevitable necessity after prison doctors determined that his condition could not be managed on site”.
Mohammedi, who is in her 50s, won the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison for her campaign to advance women’s rights and abolish the death penalty in Iran.
His family said he suffered a suspected heart attack in late March.
In an update on Saturday, the foundation said he remained unstable and was receiving oxygen.
It called for him to be transferred to a hospital in Tehran for tests and special treatment.
Reuters could not independently verify his condition.
Joergen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, said that Iranian authorities should hand Mohammadi over to his special medical team so that he can receive urgent treatment because his life is at risk.
He was imprisoned “solely for his peaceful human rights work. His life is now in the hands of Iranian authorities,” he told Reuters on Saturday.
Mohammedi was sentenced to a new 7.5-year prison sentence weeks before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran, the foundation announced in February.
The Nobel committee at the time called on Tehran to release him immediately.
The foundation said Friday morning that Muhammadi collapsed after days of dangerously high blood pressure and severe nausea.
After multiple bouts of vomiting, he collapsed and was taken to the prison’s medical unit for emergency intravenous fluids.
His family said the activist, who has undergone three angioplasty surgeries, faces a “direct and immediate” threat to his right to life.
“We call for the immediate dropping of all charges and the unconditional annulment of all sentences imposed for his peaceful human rights work,” the family said. he said.
