Iran Nobel winner Narges Mohammadi ‘unwell’ after violent arrest, supporters say

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi was taken to the hospital twice after being violently arrested last week and appeared unwell in her first telephone contact since being detained, her supporters say.

Mohammadi suffered “severe and repeated baton blows to the head and neck” during her arrest, and in the call, “her physical condition was not good, and she appeared unwell,” her foundation says in a statement.

Iranian civil society activists, including prize-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi, have called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Mohammadi and other campaigners arrested on Friday.

Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel prize, was detained after addressing a memorial ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead earlier this month.

Hamid Mohammadi, one of her brothers, who lives in Norway, tells AFP in Oslo that Narges Mohammadi called another brother inside Iran, telling him she was hit “brutally” on the head and her face and “as a result had been taken to be checked by a physician.”

“She’s not hospitalized and is still in detention,” he says.