The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned by Iranian authorities since November 2021, she was beaten by guards in the women’s section of Evin prison in Tehran for participating in a protest against the execution of Reza Rasaei, the 34-year-old arrested in 2022 during protests over the deaths of Mahsa Amini and hanged this week after a show trial.
“For months, women in the ward of Evin prison have been actively protesting against executions in Iran,” she said. reported yesterday in a statement the Mohammadi family, citing statements received from other prisoners and their relatives. “After the execution of Reza Rasaei, several female prisoners gathered in the prison courtyard to express their dissent, chanting slogans against the death penalty.”
The execution of the 34-year-old, arrested in November two years ago and convicted of the murder of a member of the Pasdaran thanks to a confession obtained under torture, took place on August 6 and was the tenth of a protester imprisoned after the outbreak of the riots in September 2022 over the killing of the young woman of Kurdish origins, arrested for not wearing the veil correctly, mandatory for all women in the Islamic Republic.
On the same day of the execution, female prisoners in Evin showed their solidarity with the victim. In addition, the Nobel Prize-winning activist and other prisoners “protested against the closed doors that prevented prisoners in critical condition from being admitted to the prison infirmary”. At this point, according to the family’s reconstruction, “they attempted to take people in need of urgent medical care to the infirmary”. But the authorities intervened to prevent this.
“The protest by female prisoners against the execution of Reza Rasaei has led to a violent crackdown by prison guards and security officers,” the Mohammadi family said in a statement. “The order was given to attack the protesters. Several women were severely beaten, causing them to suffer physical injuries and faint.”
During the protest, Rana Korkor, sister of convicted murderer Mojtaba Korkor, Sarvenaz Ahmadi and Narges Mohammadi herself fainted. According to her family, the Nobel laureate was repeatedly punched in the chest, which caused her to suddenly experience “shortness of breath” and “intense pain” and made her faint in the prison yard.
The Iranian prison administration, according to reports the press agency of the judiciary Mizan Onlinedenied the reconstruction, stating not only that none of the prisoners were beaten but that it was the prisoners themselves who had attacked some guards.
The 52-year-old human rights activist was treated in the prison infirmary but was not admitted to hospital. “We are deeply concerned about the health of Narges Mohammadi,” her family said.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent much of the last decade in prison. Her family, who live in Paris, recalls having had no direct contact with Narges Mohammadi since November, when Iranian authorities revoked her right to telephone. Despite her long detention and health problems, Mohammadi has continued her fight for human rights in Iran, in particular supporting the protests that have erupted across the country since September 2022 following the killing of Mahsa Amini.
Only in June, the activist was sentenced to another year in prison for “propaganda against the state”, a charge that comes on top of all the others for which she must serve 12 years and 3 months in prison and 2 years in exile, suffer 154 lashes and a series of other administrative sanctions and limitations of political rights.
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