Dubai, UAE
—
Iran sentenced Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to over seven more years in prison after she started a hunger strike, supporters mentioned Sunday, as Tehran cracks down on all dissent following nationwide protests and the deaths of thousands by the hands of safety forces.
The new convictions towards Mohammadi come as Iran tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program to avert a threatened army strike by US President Donald Trump. Iran’s high diplomat insisted Sunday that Tehran’s power got here from its capacity to “say no to the great powers,” putting a maximalist place simply after negotiations in Oman with the US.
Mohammadi’s supporters cited her lawyer, who spoke to Mohammadi. The lawyer, Mostafa Nili, confirmed the sentence on X, saying it had been handed down Saturday by a Revolutionary Court in town of Mashhad. Such courts sometimes difficulty verdicts with little or no alternative for defendants to contest their expenses.
“She has been sentenced to six years in prison for ‘gathering and collusion’ and one and a half years for propaganda and two-year travel ban,” he wrote. She acquired one other two years of inner exile to town of Khosf, some 740 kilometers (460 miles) southeast of Tehran, the capital, the lawyer added.
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Iran didn’t instantly acknowledge the sentence. Supporters say Mohammadi has been on a starvation strike since Feb. 2 and ended it Sunday after her sentencing over her worsening well being. She had been arrested in December at a ceremony honoring Khosrow Alikordi, a 46-year-old Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate who had been primarily based in Mashhad. Footage from the demonstration confirmed her shouting, demanding justice for Alikordi and others.
Supporters had warned for months earlier than her December arrest that Mohammadi, 53, was susceptible to being put again into prison after she acquired a furlough in December 2024 over medical considerations.
While that was to be solely three weeks, Mohammadi’s day trip of prison lengthened, presumably as activists and Western powers pushed Iran to preserve her free. She remained out even throughout the 12-day warfare in June between Iran and Israel.
Mohammadi nonetheless stored up her activism with public protests and worldwide media appearances, together with even demonstrating at one level in entrance of Tehran’s infamous Evin prison, the place she had been held.
Mohammadi had been serving 13 years and 9 months on expenses of collusion towards state safety and propaganda towards Iran’s authorities. She additionally had backed the nationwide protests sparked by the 2022 dying of Mahsa Amini, which have seen women openly defy the federal government by not carrying the hijab.
Mohammadi suffered a number of coronary heart assaults whereas imprisoned earlier than present process emergency surgical procedure in 2022, her supporters say. Her lawyer in late 2024 revealed docs had discovered a bone lesion that they feared might be cancerous that later was eliminated.
“Considering her illnesses, it is expected that she will be temporarily released on bail so that she can receive treatment,” Nili wrote.
However, Iranian officers have been signaling a more durable line towards all dissent for the reason that demonstrations. Speaking on Sunday, Iranian judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei made feedback suggesting harsh prison sentences awaited many.
“Look at some individuals who once were with the revolution and accompanied the revolution,” he mentioned. “Today, what they are saying, what they are writing, what statements they issue, they are unfortunate, they are forlorn (and) they will face damage.”
The information about Mohammadi got here as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, talking to diplomats at a summit in Tehran, signaled that Iran would stick to its place that it should be ready to enrich uranium — a serious level of competition with Trump, who bombed Iranian atomic sites in June throughout the 12-day Iran-Israel warfare.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is predicted to journey to Washington this week, with Iran anticipated to be the main topic of dialogue, his workplace mentioned.
While Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian praised the talks Friday in Oman with the Americans as “a step forward,” Araghchi’s remarks present the problem forward. Already, the US moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to stress Iran into an settlement and have the firepower needed to strike the Islamic Republic ought to Trump select to accomplish that.
“I believe the secret of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power lies in its ability to stand against bullying, domination and pressures from others,” Araghchi mentioned. “They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not pursuing an atomic bomb. Our atomic bomb is the power to say no to the great powers. The secret of the Islamic Republic’s power is in the power to say no to the powers.”
Araghchi’s selection to explicitly use an “atomic bomb” as a rhetorical gadget doubtless wasn’t unintended. While Iran has lengthy maintained its nuclear program is peaceable, the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Tehran had an organized army program to search the bomb up till 2003.
Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a brief, technical step to weapons-grade ranges of 90%, the one nonweapons state to accomplish that. Iranian officers in latest years had additionally been more and more threatening that the Islamic Republic may search the bomb, even whereas its diplomats have pointed to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s preachings as a binding fatwa, or non secular edict, that Iran wouldn’t construct one.
Pezeshkian, who ordered Araghchi to pursue talks with the Americans after doubtless getting Khamenei’s blessing, additionally wrote on X on Sunday concerning the talks.
“The Iran-US talks, held through the follow-up efforts of friendly governments in the region, were a step forward,” the president wrote. “Dialogue has always been our strategy for peaceful resolution. … The Iranian nation has always responded to respect with respect, but it does not tolerate the language of force.”
It stays unclear when and the place, or if, there will probably be a second spherical of talks. Trump, after the talks Friday, provided few particulars however mentioned: “Iran looks like they want to make a deal very badly — as they should.”