Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi sentenced again, husband says

Besides prison term, she is also sentenced to 70 lashes after a five-minute hearing

Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi was imprisoned by Iranian authorities in November 2021. AP

A court in Iran has sentenced human rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi to eight years in prison and more than 70 lashes, her husband said on Sunday.

Mohammadi was sentenced after a hearing that lasted only five minutes, Taghi Rahmani, who is based in France, said on Twitter.

He said details of the verdict and the case against his wife were not clear.

Mohammadi has long campaigned against the use of the death penalty in Iran and is a colleague of the Iranian lawyer and activist Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace Prize-winner who now lives outside the country.

Mohammadi has been jailed repeatedly by the Iranian authorities. She was released from prison in October 2020, months after seeking parole on health grounds, but then suddenly arrested in November last year in Karaj outside Tehran while attending a memorial for a man killed during nationwide protests in November 2019.

Before her arrest she had been working with families seeking justice for loved ones who were allegedly killed by security forces during the protests.

Amnesty International condemned her arrest as arbitrary and described her as a "prisoner of conscience targeted solely for her peaceful human rights activities".

While out of prison, she was sentenced in May last year to 80 lashes and 30 months in jail on charges of propaganda against Iran's Islamic system.

Activists have decried what they see as increased repression in Iran over the past months, including the jailing of campaigners and greater use of the death penalty.

Prominent detainees have also died in prison, most recently the well-known poet Baktash Abtin.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, another prize-winning lawyer who defended women arrested for protesting against the requirement for Iranian women to wear the hijab, is serving a lengthy sentence.

While she is currently believed to be out of jail on medical leave, supporters fear she is at risk of being returned to prison.