Human rights activist sentenced to prison, lashes in Iran, husband says

Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi was sentenced to 70 lashes and eight years in prison, according to the Associated Press.

The specific charges against Mahommadi were unclear. She was arrested in November after attending a memorial for a person who died in 2019 protests in Iran, and accused of “spying for Saudi Arabia” when taken into custody, said her husband Taghi Rahmani, who lives in Paris, France. 

Rahmani said the trial lasted for five minutes and his wife did not have access to lawyers. Mohammadi is prohibited from communication and the Iranian government has not made her family aware of the details of her situation.

Mohammadi was moved last week to Gharchak prison, located near Tehran, according to the AP. 

Previously the vice president of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, Mohammadi has a history of imprisonment. 

She was released in October 2020 after eight and a half years in prison on charges of planning crimes to harm the security of Iran, spreading anti-government propaganda and managing an illegal group, per the AP. 

The European Union spoke out for Mohammadi in May, asking Iran to consider “applicable international human rights law” and Mohammadi’s “deteriorating health condition.”