Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi in Iran hospital after 'cardiac crisis'

Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi was in an Iranian hospital after a "catastrophic deterioration of her health," including a "cardiac crisis", a foundation run by her family said.

The secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awarded Mohammadi the 2023 prize, expressed concern on Thursday that the condition of the Iranian human rights activist was worsening after she had suffered a heart attack in prison.

Mohammadi, in her 50s, won the prize while in prison for her campaign to advance women's rights and abolish the death penalty in Iran.

The activist "was urgently transferred to a hospital in Zanjan today following a catastrophic deterioration of her health, including two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis," the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said in a statement on its website on Friday.

"This transfer was done as an unavoidable necessity after prison doctors determined her condition could not be managed on-site, despite standing medical recommendations that she be treated by her specialized team in Tehran."

Reuters could not immediately confirm the statement, which said her transfer was a “desperate, last‑minute” measure that might come too late to address her critical health needs.

Mohammadi was sentenced to a new prison term of 7-1/2 years, the foundation said in February, weeks before the U.S. and . The Nobel committee at the time called on Tehran to free her immediately.

She was arrested in December after denouncing the death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi. Prosecutor Hasan Hematifar told reporters then she made provocative remarks at Alikordi's memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad and encouraged those present "to chant norm‑breaking slogans" and "disturb the peace".

On Friday morning, Mohammadi fainted after days of dangerously high blood pressure and severe nausea, the foundation said. After multiple bouts of vomiting, she blacked out and was moved to the prison medical unit for emergency intravenous fluids.

The activist, who has undergone three angioplasty procedures, faces a "direct and immediate" threat to her right to life, her family said. “We call for all charges to be dropped immediately and for all sentences imposed for her peaceful human rights work to be unconditionally annulled.”

- Preetika Parashuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard/Reuters