URGENT ACTION
JAILED NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE’S HEALTH AT RISK
Iranian authorities have been subjecting arbitrarily detained human rights defender and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Narges Mohammadi to torture and other ill-treatment by deliberately denying or severely delaying her access to adequate healthcare to coerce her into adhering to Iran’s abusive and degrading compulsory veiling laws. This places Narges Mohammadi’s health at great risk, particularly as she has serious heart and lung conditions. 

TAKE ACTION: WRITE AN APPEAL IN YOUR OWN WORDS OR USE THIS MODEL LETTER
Head of judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei
c/o Embassy of Iran to the European Union, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt No. 15, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium

Dear Mr Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei,

Iranian authorities, including prosecution and prison officials, are subjecting 51-year-old Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned human rights defender and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, to torture and other ill-treatment. They have deliberately denied or, in some instances, severely delayed her access to adequate healthcare, including for serious heart and lung conditions, placing her health at great risk. The denial of medical care is being used to punish her for refusing to comply with abusive compulsory veiling during transfer for medical care outside prison. On 6 November 2023 she went on hunger strike in protest at the prosecution authorities’ refusal to transfer her for urgent medical tests at a hospital outside prison for over two months. On 8 November, amidst a global outcry, the authorities transferred her to hospital without the compulsory headscarf but returned her to Tehran’s Evin prison the same day and before the test results were reviewed by doctors. On 11 November 2023, she learned that doctors had found fluid around her heart, up to 80% blockage of two arteries requiring an immediate angioplasty and swelling in her oesophagus. Despite this, on 15 November 2023, prosecution officials again blocked her transfer to hospital and conditioned it on her complying with compulsory veiling. She was taken to hospital on 16 November 2023 for an angioplasty without compulsory veiling and returned to prison the same day against medical advice. Serious concerns remain over her access to adequate healthcare she needs, including follow-up treatment and monitoring of her heart condition, as prison and prosecution officials have the authority to decide on transfers to hospital and ignore medical advice, per Iran’s Prison Regulations.   

Since May 2021, Iranian authorities have unjustly convicted and sentenced Narges Mohammadi to a total of 12 years and 11 months in prison, 154 lashes, and other sanctions in four separate cases stemming from her human rights activism, including advocating for families seeking truth and justice for loved ones unlawfully killed by security forces during nationwide protests; publicly shedding light on sexual violence against women in prison; and supporting the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising. On 12 November 2023, Narges Mohammadi was summoned to the prosecutor’s office in relation to a new case, but prison officials refused her transfer unless she complied with discriminatory compulsory veiling laws, which she refused. 

I call on you to immediately and unconditionally release Narges Mohammadi as she is a prisoner of conscience detained solely for her peaceful human rights activism, quash her unjust convictions and sentences, and drop any new charges against her related to the peaceful exercise of her rights. Pending her release, provide her with adequate specialized healthcare, including for treatment unavailable in prison, and protect her from further torture and other ill-treatment. A prompt, independent, effective and impartial investigation into her allegations of torture and other ill-treatment must be conducted, with those suspected of criminal responsibility brought to justice in fair trials. All compulsory veiling laws must also be abolished.

Yours sincerely,
Additional information
 
On 6 November 2023, Narges Mohammadi’s family announced on social media that she began a hunger strike that day in protest at the Iranian authorities’ repeated denial or delay of adequate medical care for ailing prisoners, which results in death or severe deterioration in health, and for conditioning women prisoners’ access to adequate healthcare to adhering to compulsory veiling laws. In 2022, Iranian authorities repeatedly denied Narges Mohammadi access to adequate healthcare in prison, including in reprisal for her ongoing human rights work, and placed her life at grave risk. Narges Mohammadi reported that, on 3 February 2022, following what she later learned was a heart attack, the prison doctor denied her adequate healthcare by not carrying out examinations on her heart after she was taken to the prison clinic severely unwell, while prosecution officials barred her transfer to hospital outside of prison for urgent healthcare. It was only after suffering a series of heart attacks on 16 February 2022 that Narges Mohammadi was transferred to hospital where she underwent emergency heart surgery. Against medical advice and before she recuperated, on 19 February 2022, the authorities took her back to prison. On 22 February 2022, she was released from prison on temporary medical leave and recalled to prison on 21 April 2022 to continue serving her sentence, despite medical advice, and has been in prison ever since. In addition to her heart condition, she has a pre-existing lung disease, which is characterized by breathing difficulties, and for which she must use an inhaler and regularly take anticoagulant medications to prevent the formation of blood clots in her lungs. 
Narges Mohammadi has faced reprisals by the Iranian authorities for her human right work for over 14 years, including unjust prison terms. Her most recent imprisonment began on 16 November 2021, when she was violently arrested while attending a memorial ceremony in Karaj, Alborz province, for Ebrahim Ketabdar, who was unlawfully killed by security forces during nationwide protests in November 2019. At the time, the authorities told her that she had been arrested to begin serving a prison sentence of two years and six months following a May 2021 conviction, which stemmed from her participation, during an earlier period of imprisonment, in a sit-in with other prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin prison between 21 and 24 December 2019 to protest unlawful killings carried out by security forces during the November 2019 nationwide protests and statements she had made condemning the death penalty. After arrest, she was held in prolonged solitary confinement for 64 days in section 209 of Evin prison, which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, and where agents subjected her to torture and other ill-treatment by keeping bright lights on 24 hours a day; severely limiting her access to fresh air and natural light to only three times a week for 20 minutes each time; and kept her in almost near total isolation without meaningful contact with other prisoners; which all caused her severe distress and suffering, including shortness of breath. On 4 January 2022, Narges Mohammadi was taken before Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran to stand trial in a separate case. This trial was grossly unfair: it lasted just five minutes and she was denied access to a lawyer both before and during the trial. On 15 January 2022, she was informed that the Court had sentenced her on national security related charges to eight years and two months in prison; two years in internal “exile” in a city outside Tehran where she normally lives; a two-year ban on membership in political and social parties, groups or collectives; a two-year ban on engagement in online spaces, media and press; and 74 lashes. In another case opened against her while she was imprisoned, in October 2022, Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran convicted Narges Mohammadi of “spreading propaganda against the system” and sentenced her to an additional one year and three months’ imprisonment, a two-year ban on leaving the country, a two-year ban on membership in political parties, groups or collectives and cleaning rubbish in uninhabited areas for four hours a day, three days a week, for three months. Most recently, in yet another case brought against her, in early August 2023, Branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran convicted her of “spreading propaganda against the system” for her public writings from inside prison detailing sexual violence against women protesters detained during the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising and sentenced to a further one-year prison sentence.
Narges Mohammadi was previously released on 8 October 2020 after being unjustly imprisoned for over five years in a case also solely stemming from her human rights work. She reported that from the time of her release until her arbitrary arrest and detention on 16 November 2021, she received death threats from security forces and was arbitrarily arrested on at least five occasions and detained each time for periods reaching up to about 24 hours. On 6 October 2023 Narges Mohammadi was named the recipient of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”. 
PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: Persian, English 
You can also write in your own language.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 17 January 2024 
Please check with the Amnesty office in your country if you wish to send appeals after the deadline.

NAME AND PREFFERED PRONOUN: Narges Mohammadi (she/her)

LINK TO PREVIOUS UA: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/5775/2022/en/  

Additional TARGET

Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran
16 Prince’s Gate SW7 1PT
Fax: 020 7589 4440
iranemb.lon@mfa.gov.ir