Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi faces new trial, says her family

Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi faces a new trial after she accused security forces of sexually assaulting female prisoners, her family said on Saturday (May 18), as per news agency AFP.

‘Full-scale war against women’

The trial, which will begin on Sunday (May 19), is said to be related to an audio post that Mohammadi had sent from the notorious Evin prison where she is currently being held. The post had reportedly condemned a “full-scale war against women” by the Iranian regime.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The message in question was shared by her supporters, back in April. The charges of the latest case are related to making “propaganda against the regime,” reported AFP.

The Iranian judicial authorities are yet to comment on the case.

Also Read |US girl aged 12 dies by suicide after she was bullied at school

Mohammadi, 52, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 has already served over 12 years in prison due to multiple convictions.

She has been detained by the Iranian regime on 13 occasions, received five convictions, and faced a cumulative sentence of 31 years in prison, along with 154 lashings.

Mohammadi’s family quoted her as saying that the trial should be held in public so “witnesses and survivors can testify to the sexual assaults perpetrated by the Islamic republic regime against women.”

In a post on her website, Mohammadi said it was the fourth time in as many years she had been “dragged to the unjust and farcical courts’ table” for her “protest and disclosure of the religious regime’s men’s sexual assault against women”.

What was the message about?

In April, the Nobel laureate took to Instagram and urged Iranian women to share their stories of arrest and sexual assault at the hands of the Iranian authorities.

She also spoke about the case of journalist and student Dina Ghalibaf who, according to a report by AFP that citedrights groups, was arrested after she accused Iranian security forces of handcuffing and sexually assaulting her during a previous arrest at a metro station.

Also Read |Mount Ibu: Eruption of volcano on Indonesian island prompts evacuation of seven villages

Ghalibaf has since been released. In the post on her website, Mohammadi also said she was being tried for speaking against “the bruising of the body and narrating the assault on” Ghalaibaf, in an audio message.

Mohammadi, who has been incarcerated since November 2021, has not seen her Paris-based husband and twin children for several years. The trial that opens on Sunday will be the fourth such case against her.

(With inputs from agencies)