Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi and other female inmates were injured in clashes at Tehran’s Evin prison, her family said, raising fresh concerns about their health.
Iranian authorities acknowledged the encounter on Tuesday but blamed Mohammadi for “provocation” and denied assaulting any prisoners.
Mohammadi, a 52-year-old human rights activist who won the 2023 prize for his campaign against the death penalty, has been in prison since November 2021 and has spent most of the past decade in and out of jail.
Mohammadi’s Paris-based family insisted they had no direct contact with him since his right to make phone calls was revoked in November.
But she said she had learned from the families of other prisoners held at Evin that clashes began on Tuesday when female inmates began protesting against the execution.
About 30 convicts were executed this week, according to rights groups, including Gholamreza (Reza) Rasaei, who the Iranian judiciary said was hanged on Tuesday in connection with the 2022 protests.
“Prison guards and security agents resorted to violent action due to prisoners’ protest against the execution of Reza Rasaei,” Mohammadi’s family said in a statement late Thursday, citing reports.
“Several women who stood up to the security forces were brutally beaten. The clashes escalated to such an extent that some inmates suffered physical injuries.”
– ‘I am very worried’ –
After being punched in the chest, Mohammadi had trouble breathing and experienced severe chest pain, causing her to collapse and fall unconscious on the ground in the prison courtyard, the family said.
It said he had sustained injuries and was treated at the jail hospital but was not referred to an outside hospital.
“In these circumstances, we are extremely concerned for his health and wellbeing,” the family said.
Relatives and supporters raised concerns about Mohammadi’s condition earlier this month, saying they had been informed of the results of medical tests carried out in July “which showed a worrying deterioration in his health”.
For the past eight months, Mohammadi has been suffering from acute back and knee pain, including a slipped disc. In 2021, he had a stent placed on one of his main coronary arteries due to a blockage.
Iran’s prison authorities denied that prisoners were beaten and blamed the clash on Mohammadi and other inmates who broke the lock of an outer door.
According to the Tasnim news agency, a statement said two inmates had “increased heart rate due to stress,” but medical examinations showed their general condition was “favourable.”
– ‘Dangerously high’ –
Reports indicate that tensions have escalated in the women’s wing of Evin prison after two Kurdish women activists, Sharife Mohammadi and Pakhshan Azizi, were sentenced to death for membership in an outlawed group.
Human rights groups say Iran has increased the use of the death penalty following a brief lull during elections in June-July that brought reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian to power.
On Wednesday alone, authorities hanged 29 people in two prisons in Tehran’s satellite city of Karaj, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organization.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva he was “extremely concerned” by the reports. “This reflects a worrying number of executions in such a short period of time.”
Mohammadi has continued to campaign from behind bars and has strongly supported the protests that erupted across Iran following the custodial death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. The 22-year-old Iranian Kurd was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress rules for women.
In June he was sentenced to a new term of one year in prison for “propaganda against the state,” adding to sentences already served on him of 12 years and three months’ imprisonment, 154 lashes, two years’ exile and various social and political restrictions.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
