Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi taken to hospital after arrest, family says

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammedi was taken to a hospital emergency room twice after what they described as severe beatings while detained in the northeastern city of Mashhad, her family said Tuesday after her arrest by Iranian security forces last week.

Mohammadi’s family said in a statement on social media that they spoke to him on the phone briefly after his arrest and that he described repeated blows that required urgent intervention.

Mohammadi, 53, was arrested on Friday while attending a meeting linked to the death of human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, according to the Narges Mohammadi Foundation. Footage shared by supporters shows him speaking to the crowd shortly before security forces arrived on the scene. Others show him being taken to medical care.

Iranian officials have not commented publicly about his family’s account and did not respond to questions.

Authorities said on Saturday that they instructed security officials to temporarily detain some participants of the meeting after “norm-breaking” slogans were chanted, and that the detention was a preventive measure to protect the participant from others in the crowd.

Mohammedi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of advocacy for human rights and women’s rights in Iran. He was repeatedly imprisoned for his activism and was previously released on medical grounds.