Nobel laureate Mohammadi in Iran hospital after ‘cardiac crisis’, foundation says

Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi was in an Iranian hospital after a “catastrophic deterioration of her health”, including a “cardiac crisis”, a foundation run by her family said.

The secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awarded Mohammadi the 2023 prize, expressed concern on April 30 that the condition of the Iranian human rights activist was worsening after she had suffered a heart attack in prison.

Mohammadi, in her 50s, won the prize while in prison for her campaign to advance women’s rights and abolish the death penalty in Iran.

The activist “was urgently transferred to a hospital in Zanjan today following a catastrophic deterioration of her health, including two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis”, the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said in a statement on its website on May 1.

“This transfer was done as an unavoidable necessity after prison doctors determined her condition could not be managed on-site,” it said.

In an update on May 2, the foundation said she remained in an unstable condition and was receiving oxygen. It called for her to be transferred to a hospital in Iran’s capital, Tehran, for tests and specialised treatment.

Reuters could not independently confirm her condition.

The head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, Mr Joergen Watne Frydnes, told Reuters on May 2 that Iranian authorities must release Mohammadi to her dedicated medical team so she can urgently receive treatment as her life remains at risk.

Mohammadi was sentenced to a new prison term of 7½ years, the foundation said in February, weeks before the US and Israel launched their war against Iran. The Nobel committee at the time called on Tehran to free her immediately.

She was arrested in December after denouncing the death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi. Prosecutor Hasan Hematifar told reporters then she made provocative remarks at Alikordi’s memorial ceremony in the north-eastern city of Mashhad and encouraged those present “to chant norm‑breaking slogans” and “disturb the peace”.

On the morning of May 1, Mohammadi fainted after days of dangerously high blood pressure and severe nausea, the foundation said. After multiple bouts of vomiting, she blacked out and was moved to the prison medical unit for emergency intravenous fluids.

The activist, who has undergone three angioplasty procedures, faces a “direct and immediate” threat to her right to life, her family said. “We call for all charges to be dropped immediately and for all sentences imposed for her peaceful human rights work to be unconditionally annulled.” REUTERS