The brother of jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that her life is "in serious danger" following a heart attack she suffered in prison last month.
Hamid Reza Mohammadi said his sister was being denied medical care and suffering from "vision problems, nausea, blood-pressure issues, and chest pain."
Narges Mohammadi has spent much of the last decade behind bars as a result of her human rights activism. She was most recently arrested in December, during a memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
"After her arrest in Mashhad, because of blows she received to the head, she was already in bad condition," her brother said.
Following her arrest, she was given a new prison sentence of 7 ½ years, her foundation said in February. In April, her husband, Taghi Rahmani, told Radio Farda that her health had significantly deteriorated in prison.
Hamid Reza said she was now being held in Zanjan prison, some 330 kilometers west of the capital, Tehran.
"Lawyers and the family have been trying to at least send her to a specialist in Tehran for treatment, but that too was prevented," he said. "They do not allow Narges to see a trusted specialist."
'Cruel Abuse'
The Norwegian Nobel Committee issued a statement in February calling on Iran to end what it called the "cruel abuse" of Mohammadi, and to release her immediately.
On April 2, human rights group Amnesty International also called for her release, citing the recent heart attack.
"Prisoners in Zanjan are at risk from US and Israeli airstrikes amid explosions near the facility, which Narges Mohammadi said prisoners hear, further heightening their stress and exacerbating her fragile health," it said.
Hamid Reza said that the prison conditions she faced were harsher than usual, amid heightened anxiety among the Iranian authorities about internal dissent due to the ongoing confrontation with the United States.
"The government is determined to maintain control even through mass executions and by killing prominent figures such as Narges and Nasrin Sotoudeh, Fatemeh Sepehri, and many others," he said.
Amid an intensifying crackdown in Iran, Sotoudeh, a prominent rights activist, was arrested at her home in Tehran on April 1.
Sepehri has been in jail since 2022, when she was arrested during the mass nationwide Women, Life, Freedom protests. She was given an additional sentence in 2024 after condemning the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
Hamid Reza Mohammadi told Radio Farda he felt that human rights abuses in Iran were being neglected by the international community.
"Unfortunately, countries involved in this conflict, including European states, are focused on the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices. Human rights have been completely forgotten," he said.
