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Iran Sentences Imprisoned Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi to an Additional Prison Term

FILE PHOTO: Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
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Iran Sentences Imprisoned Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi to an Additional Prison Term

FILE PHOTO: Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

A court in Iran has slapped imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi with an additional sentence of 15 months for allegedly spreading propaganda against Iran, her family said Monday.
According to a post on Instagram by Mohammadi 's family, the new sentence was handed down on Dec. 19. It said Mohammadi had refused to attend the court sessions, The Associated Press reported.
The verdict also said that after serving her time, Mohammadi would be banned from traveling abroad for two years and would be barred from membership in political and social groups and from having a mobile phone for the same duration.
The ruling also banishes her from the capital, Tehran, meaning she would likely have to serve the new sentence in another province in Iran. Mohammadi is held in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison where she is serving a 30-month sentence for spreading propaganda against the ruling system, disobediences in prison and defamation of authorities.
The latest verdict reflects the Iranian theocracy's anger that she was awarded the Nobel prize last October for years of activism despite a decadeslong government campaign targeting her.
Mohammadi is the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi in 2003. The 51-year-old Mohammadi has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars.
Earlier in November, Mohammadi went on hunger strike over being blocked along with other inmates from getting medical care and to protest the country’s mandatory headscarves for women.
Mohammadi was a leading light for nationwide, women-led protests sparked by the death last year of a 22-year-old woman in police custody that have grown into one of the most intense challenges to Iran’s theocratic government. That woman, Mahsa Amini, had been detained for allegedly not wearing her headscarf to the liking of authorities.

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France on the Back Foot in Africa after Chadian Snub

File photo: Chad's president Idriss Deby (R) talks with France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) during an official visit to meet with 'Barkhane' soldiers, at the Presidential palace in N'Djamena on December 23, 2018. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
File photo: Chad's president Idriss Deby (R) talks with France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) during an official visit to meet with 'Barkhane' soldiers, at the Presidential palace in N'Djamena on December 23, 2018. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
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France on the Back Foot in Africa after Chadian Snub

File photo: Chad's president Idriss Deby (R) talks with France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) during an official visit to meet with 'Barkhane' soldiers, at the Presidential palace in N'Djamena on December 23, 2018. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
File photo: Chad's president Idriss Deby (R) talks with France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) during an official visit to meet with 'Barkhane' soldiers, at the Presidential palace in N'Djamena on December 23, 2018. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

A French plan to significantly reduce its military presence in West and central Africa risks backfiring and further diminishing the former colonial power's influence in the region at a time when Russia is gaining ground.
A French envoy to President Emmanuel Macron this week handed in a report with proposals on how France could reduce its military presence in Chad, Gabon and Ivory Coast, where it has deployed troops for decades, Reuters reported.
Details of the report have not been made public but two sources said the plan is to cut the number of troops to 600 from around 2,200 now. The sources said Chad would keep the largest contingent with 300 French troops, down from 1,000. However, in a surprise move that caught French officials on the hop, the government of Chad - a key Western ally in the fight against militants in the region - on Thursday abruptly ended its defense cooperation pact with France. That could lead to French troops leaving the central African country altogether.
"For France it is the start of the end of their security engagement in central and Western Africa," said Ulf Laessing, director of the Sahel Program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Mali.
"Chad was the aircraft carrier of the French army, its logistical headquarters. If Chad doesn't exist, the French army will have a huge problem to keep running its other operations."
In a further blow to France, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye told French state TV on Thursday it was inappropriate for French troops to maintain a presence in his country, where 350 French soldiers are currently based. France has already pulled its soldiers out from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, following military coups in those West African countries and spreading anti-French sentiment. Paris is also shifting more attention to Europe with the war in Ukraine and increasing budgetary constraints, diplomats said.
The review envisions the remaining French soldiers in the region focusing on training, intelligence exchange and responding to requests from countries for help, depending on their needs, the sources said. Chad's move to end the cooperation deal had not been discussed with Paris and shocked the French, according to the two sources and other officials. France, which wants to keep a presence in Chad in part because of its work to help ease one of the world's worst humanitarian crises unfolding now in neighboring Sudan, responded only 24 hours after Chad made its announcement.
"France takes note and intends to continue the dialogue to implement these orientations," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
One of the two sources, a French official with knowledge of Chadian affairs, said Chad's government appeared to have seen the French decision to more than halve its military presence there as a snub. Chad also felt the French would no longer be in a position to guarantee the security of the military regime led by President Mahamat Idriss Deby, this source said.
Macron had backed Deby despite criticism since Deby seized power following the death of his father, who ruled Chad for 30 years until he was killed in 2021 during an incursion by rebels. Deby won an election held this year.
In its statement on Thursday evening, released hours after the French foreign minister had visited the Sudanese border in eastern Chad with his counterpart, Chad's foreign ministry said N'djamena wanted to fully assert its sovereignty after more than six decades of independence from France. It said the decision should in no way undermine the friendly relations between the two countries. Earlier this year, a small contingent of US special forces left Chad amid a review of US cooperation with the country.
The French drawdown, coupled with a US pullback from Africa, contrasts with the increasing influence of Russia and other countries, including Türkiye, on the continent. Russian mercenaries are helping prop up the military governments of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, and are also fighting alongside them against extremist militants. However, French officials and other sources played down Russia's ability to take advantage of the French setback in Chad, at least in the short term. The French source familiar with Chadian affairs noted that Russia and Chad backed rival factions in Sudan's war. Russia also has major military commitments in Syria and the war in Ukraine.