08 March 2022 :
Human rights defender Narges Mohammadi who was recently briefly furloughed after undergoing heart surgery, has to return to prison tomorrow (March 8).
Reiterating that no civil activist should be harassed or imprisoned for their human rights activism, Iran Human Rights considers Narges Mohammadi’s summons to be playing with her life in light of her current health status, and calls upon the international community to take immediate action to prevent her return to prison.
Iran Human Rights Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The sentences against Narges Mohammadi are unlawful under both international law and the laws of the Islamic Republic and their sole purpose is to further harass the human rights defender. We call on Iranian civil society and the international community to intensify their attempts to defend the rights of Narges Mohammadi and other human rights defenders being harassed by the Islamic Republic authorities."
Narges Mohammadi who was released from prison after serving a five year sentence in October 2020, was sentenced to a further 30 months imprisonment and 80 lashes for her sit-in protest in Evin Prison against the brutal crackdown on the November 2019 nationwide protests and letters she wrote from prison, which was upheld in September of that year.
Vowing to defy the implementation, Narges documented her five arrests since release, which were all accompanied by violence and force.
She was last arrested on 16 November 2021 at the memorial service of Ebrahim Ketabdar who was killed during the November 2019 protests. She was informed that her 30-month-sentence was being enforced while in solitary confinement in Evin Prison the next day.
On 24 January 2022, her husband tweeted that Narges was sentenced to eight years imprisonment and 70 lashes in a trial that only lasted for five minutes. She was transferred to Qarchak Prison on January 19 and hospitalised less than a month later on February 17. In February 2022, she underwent an angioplasty procedure in hospital but was returned to Qarchak prison the next day. She was released on a medical furlough on February 22 after spending 100 days behind bars.
Narges was held in solitary confinement for 64 days in her most recent detention in Evin Prison and was denied access to her lawyer throughout her detention. Prior to her arrest, she had filed a complaint about her previous unlawful solitary confinement along with other civil activists.
On the Mohammadi case, see also HoC 30/03/2020, 05/05/2020, 16/06/2020, 08/10/2020, 30/03/2021, 22/04/2021, 31/05/2021, 24/01/2022.
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/5126/