Iran adds prison time for Nobel Winner and frees 2 journalists on bail

The Iranian regime sentenced Narges Mohammadi, the jailed human rights activist who received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, to 15 more months in prison, her family said Monday.

The news came a day after Iran released journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi on bail while they appeal their sentences, according to state media. They had been jailed for their coverage of a young woman whose death sparked a nationwide protest movement that challenged the country’s system of authoritarian clerical rule. Prosecutors filed a new complaint against the women Monday.

The journalists helped break the story of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September 2022 after being arrested on charges of violating Iran’s religiously conservative dress code.

Hamedi, 31, reported for the Iranian daily newspaper Shargh from the hospital where the young woman lay dying and shared a photo of her grieving relatives that went viral on social media. She was arrested days after Amini’s death, and Elaheh Mohammadi, who had covered her funeral for the newspaper Hammihan, was arrested a week after that, as protests swept Iran.

Both women were charged with conspiring with foreign intelligence agencies to undermine national security, as well as spreading propaganda, and spent months in detention. After closed-door trials, they were sentenced in October — Hamedi to 13 years in prison and Mohammadi to 12 years.

Narges Mohammadi, 51, has spent most of the past decade in and out of prison, charged with “spreading anti-state propaganda” — part of Iran’s long campaign to silence and punish her for her activism.

Her family said a new trial was held Dec. 19 without her present, and the sentence was her fifth conviction since 2021. In total, her family said, she has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison, 154 lashes, four months’ travel ban and two years’ exile.

“The judgment resembles a political statement against Narges Mohammadi, emphasizing accusations that she repeatedly incites and encourages public and individual opinions against the Islamic regime to sow chaos and disturbances,” her family wrote on the platform Threads.

But her imprisonment has not stopped her, even though she has suffered severe health problems, including a heart attack.

In response to a major uprising, led by women, that rocked Iran after Amini died, Narges Mohammadi organized prison protests, wrote opinion pieces and led weekly workshops for female inmates about their rights.

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