Iran extends Nobel Prize winner's prison sentence

Iran's Revolutionary Court has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to an additional 15 months in prison.

Mohammadi has already spent 12 years in jail serving multiple sentences. She is accused of spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic while in prison. Her family condemned the verdict, saying this was her fifth conviction since March 2021. She was not present at the latest trial and the verdict was issued in her absence, BBC reports.

Narges Mohammadi has campaigned for human rights in Iran for decades. She has been in and out of jail for two decades because of her activism. She has been arrested 13 times and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison.

As well as the additional months in prison, the new sentence orders Mohammadi to spend two years in exile outside Tehran. This means she will have to be moved from the notorious Evin prison where she is currently held.

The verdict also said that after serving her time, Mohammadi would be banned from traveling abroad for two years and would be barred from membership of political and social groups and from having a mobile phone for the same duration.

The 51-year-old human rights activist has kept up her work despite the numerous threats and arrests.

She won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her work fighting against the oppression of women in Iran.

Her teenage children accepted the prize at Oslo's city hall in October on her behalf, having not seen their mother for years.

The children read a speech which had been smuggled out of prison, where Mohammadi denounced Iran's "tyrannical" government.

"I write this message from behind the high, cold walls of a prison. The Iranian people, with perseverance, will overcome repression and authoritarianism," she said.

Referring to the protests that began last year following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody for allegedly wearing her hijab "improperly", Mohammadi said young Iranians had "transformed the streets and public spaces into a place of widespread civil resistance".

/KN/