PARIS -Iranian security forces on Friday detained 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, along with at least eight other activists, in an arrest condemned as “brutal” by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Mohammadi, who had been granted temporary leave from prison in December 2024, was detained together with eight other activists during a memorial ceremony for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office last week, her foundation wrote on X.
Those arrested at the ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad included fellow prominent activist Sepideh Gholian, who had previously been imprisoned alongside Mohammadi in Tehran’s Evin Prison. “These individuals were present solely to pay their respects and express solidarity at a memorial ceremony,” the foundation said, adding that the arrests “constitute a blatant and serious violation of fundamental freedoms and basic human rights.”
“Narges was beaten on the legs; she was grabbed by her hair and dragged away,” one of her brothers, Hamid Mohammadi, told AFP in Oslo, where he lives. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was “deeply concerned by today’s brutal arrest” of Mohammadi and called on Iran to “immediately” clarify her whereabouts. The arrest came two days after the ceremony in Oslo honoring the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, a fierce critic of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is an ally of Tehran. The Nobel Committee said it “notes” the timing, “given the close collaboration between the regimes in Iran and Venezuela.”
Within Iran, the Mehr news agency cited Mashhad Governor Hassan Hosseini as saying the individuals were arrested at the ceremony after “chanting slogans deemed contrary to public norms,” though no names were provided. (Bssnews)
