Iran grants bail to Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi amid health crisis

Iranian authorities transferred Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi by ambulance from Zanjan prison to Tehran Pars Hospital and granted a suspension of her sentence on heavy bail as concern mounted over her deteriorating health. Mohammadi, 54, won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize while in prison, and her foundation said the move came after a severe decline tied to a heart attack on March 24.

Her foundation said Mohammadi had suffered two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis, and that she needed treatment from her own specialized medical team in Tehran. The foundation said the suspension was not enough and pressed for permanent specialized care, arguing that she should never be returned to prison. It also said the length of the suspension remained unclear and that no details were given about the bail amount.

The case has intensified scrutiny of how Iran handles high-profile dissidents when international attention is at its strongest. Amnesty International said Mohammadi was found unconscious in her cell and was initially taken only to the prison infirmary, before a cardiologist warned that prison medication may have contributed to the heart attack. Amnesty also said she had lost 20 kilograms since her arrest on December 12, 2025, and that a legal medical examiner in Zanjan had already recommended a one-month temporary suspension of her sentence on medical grounds on April 13, 2026.

Her family and lawyers had been pushing for transfer to Tehran for days, while authorities had refused both release and transfer for treatment, according to Amnesty. Rights advocates say the struggle over Mohammadi’s care mirrors a wider pattern in Iran, where detainees have long faced delays or denials of specialized medical treatment.

Mohammadi’s case has also become a test of whether Tehran is willing to ease pressure on a woman whose activism has made her one of the country’s best-known dissident voices. Human Rights Watch said Iranian authorities had threatened to send her back to prison to force her to stop her rights work, and said she was serving a 13-year-and-9-month sentence tied to her human rights activity. The group, along with Amnesty, has described her treatment as part of a broader system of repression and medical neglect.

Her latest sentence deepened that conflict. She was arrested in Mashhad on December 12, 2025, after denouncing the death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, and was sentenced in February to 7.5 years in prison. The Nobel Committee had called on Tehran to free her immediately when that sentence was announced. For Iranian authorities, the hospital transfer may read as a tactical concession under pressure; for Mohammadi’s supporters, it is at most a temporary reprieve inside a far larger campaign of control.