Iran sentenced Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to more than seven additional years in prison following a hunger strike that supporters said she began in late February, as Tehran moved to punish dissent amid nationwide protests and ongoing negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program.
Mohammadi’s supporters said she ended her hunger strike Sunday after the sentencing. Her lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad handed down the verdict on Saturday, confirming the sentence on X.
Nili said Mohammadi received six years in prison for “gathering and collusion,” an additional 1.5 years for propaganda, and a two-year travel ban. He also said she received another two years of internal exile to Khosf, a city about 740 kilometers (460 miles) southeast of Tehran.
Nili’s post also referenced Mohammadi’s health and medical history while in custody. Supporters have said she had suffered multiple heart attacks in prison and had undergone emergency surgery in 2022, and Nili wrote that given her illnesses she was expected to be temporarily released on bail to receive treatment.
Amnesty International’s secretary-general, Agnes Callamard, wrote on X that the sentence was “a reflection of the skyrocketing lethal repression against dissent and protests waged by the authorities.” Iran, in the reporting, did not acknowledge the sentence, and supporters said Mohammadi had been on hunger strike since Feb. 2.
Supporters said Mohammadi, 53, was at risk of being returned to prison after she was granted a furlough in December 2024 on medical concerns that they said were expected to last about three weeks. Instead, her time out of prison lengthened, including during a 12-day war in June between Iran and Israel, and she continued activism through public protests and international media appearances.
According to the same reporting, Mohammadi had been serving a total of 13 years and nine months on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against Iran’s government. Supporters also said she had backed the nationwide protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, where women have openly defied the government by not wearing the hijab.
The sentencing news arrived as Iran’s foreign policy leadership signaled a hard line on nuclear negotiations with the United States. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to diplomats at a summit in Tehran, said Iran’s strength came from its ability to “say no to the great powers,” framing the nuclear standoff in terms of resisting “bullying, domination and pressures from others.”
In comments attributed to Araghchi, he used “atomic bomb” as a rhetorical device and said, “They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not pursuing an atomic bomb,” adding, “Our atomic bomb is the power to say no to the great powers.” The reporting also said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian praised talks in Oman with the Americans on Friday as “a step forward,” while Araghchi’s remarks underscored the challenge ahead.
The developments unfolded against a backdrop of increasing U.S. military pressure in the region, the reporting said, including the repositioning of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East. The reporting added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to travel to Washington this week, with Iran expected to be a major topic of discussion, as Iran sought to avert what U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened.
Iran also issued a warning to pilots that it planned “rocket launches” Monday into Tuesday in an area over Semnan province, home to the Imam Khomeini Spaceport, a timing supporters and observers have associated in the past with marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.