Beirut, May 3: The health of imprisoned Iranian rights lawyer Narges Mohammadi was at “very high risk,” her foundation and family said Saturday, adding that Iran’s Intelligence Ministry was opposing her transfer to Tehran for treatment by her own doctors.
Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate in her early 50s, was urgently transferred to a hospital in Zanjan in Iran’s northwest on Friday after a cardiac crisis and fainting. Her family has said her health had been worsening in part from a beating she received during her December arrest.
Medical teams in Zanjan have requested her records before performing any treatment, while recommending that she be transferred to Tehran, her foundation said.
But her Paris-based husband, Taghi Rahmani, said the Intelligence Ministry opposed the transfer for angiography, or imaging of the blood vessels. He spoke in a voice message shared with The Associated Press by the foundation.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee in a statement urged Iranian authorities to immediately transfer Mohammadi to her medical team, saying her life is in their hands.
“She has the mental resilience for imprisonment, but her body does not have the readiness. The Ministry of Intelligence wouldn’t even mind if (she) died,” her husband told Sky News.
He added that their children hadn’t seen Mohammadi for over a decade, since 2015.
Before her arrest on Dec 12, Mohammadi already had been serving a sentence of 13 years and nine months on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against Iran’s government, but had been released on furlough since late 2024 over medical concerns.
Her legal team is pursuing the matter with the General Prosecutor’s office, the foundation said.
A fragile ceasefire holds, but talks are uncertain
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, spoke by phone with counterparts in Qatar, Japan, Italy and South Korea a day after US President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to end the war. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said Tehran handed it over Thursday night.
Late on Saturday, two semiofficial Iranian outlets, Tasnim and Fars, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said Iran has sent a 14-point proposal via Pakistan in response to a nine-point US proposal.
The three-week ceasefire appears to be holding. Negotiations continued by phone after Trump called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last weekend, the president said.
Trump also has floated a new plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where about a fifth of the world’s trade in oil and natural gas typically passes.
US warns shipping companies about possible sanctions
The United States has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz, adding pressure in the standoff over control of it.
Iran effectively closed the strait by attacking and threatening ships after the US and Israel launched a war on Feb 28. Tehran later offered some ships safe passage via routes closer to its shore, charging fees at times.
The US on Friday warned against transfers not only in cash but also in “digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments,” including charitable donations and payments at Iranian embassies.
The US has responded with a naval blockade of Iranian ports since April 13, depriving Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy. The US Central Command on Saturday said 48 commercial ships have been told to turn back.
Iran hangs two men convicted of spying for Israel
Iran on Saturday said it hanged two men convicted of spying for Israel.
The judiciary’s news outlet, Mizanonline, said Yaghoub Karimpour was accused of sending “sensitive information” to an officer in Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, while Nasser Bekrzadeh allegedly sent details about government and religious leaders as well as information about Natanz. The city is home to a nuclear enrichment facility bombed by Israel and the US last year.
Iran has hanged more than a dozen people over alleged espionage and terrorist activities in recent weeks. Rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face. (AP)
