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

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.