Timeline of events since Narges Mohammadi’s last arrest in 2015:
5th May 2015: Security agents arrest Narges Mohammadi at her home and take her to Evin prison. She has not fully served a previous, six-year prison sentence due to medical problems and has resumed her human rights activities, especially against the death penalty (RSF).
17th July 2015: Narges Mohammadi’s twin children, Ali and Kiana, leave Iran to join their father and Narges’ husband, Taghi Rahmani, in Paris (Amnesty).
2nd August 2015: Narges Mohammadi is transferred to a hospital because of neurological paralysis. She has a history of severe health problems. Yet she is sent back to her prison ward on the same day, without being seen by a specialist doctor (CHRI).
11th October 2015: She is hospitalized again after suffering a seizure. During her stay in hospital, she is chained to her bed and denied family visits for most of the time (CHRI).
17th May 2016: Her lawyer is informed that Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to 16 years prison. The sentence is composed as follows:
- 10 years for “founding an illegal group” (this refers to the group Legam or “Step by step to abolish the death penalty”)
- 5 years for “crimes against national security”
- 1 year for “propaganda against the system”.
According to a legal provision, she must serve the longest of these sentences, amounting to 10 years (Amnesty).
She also received a 6-year sentence on similar charges in 2011 (reduced from 11 years by an appeal court). In 2012, she was released on bail for medical reasons (RSF).
27th June 2016: Narges Mohammadi starts a hunger strike after the authorities refuse to allow her telephone contact with her young son and daughter.
9th July 2016: Narges Mohammadi is transferred in handcuffs to a neurological clinic for urgent treatment. She is suffering from heart palpitations and the hunger strike has caused a severe drop in her blood pressure (CHRI).
16th July 2016: Narges Mohammadi ends her hunger strike on its twentieth day after being granted permission to have weekly phonecalls with her children (HRANA).
27th September 2016: An appeal court confirms the 16-year (10-year) prison sentence (RSF).
15th March 2017: According to an authority inside Evin prison, Narges Mohammadi’s current 16-year (10-year) sentence starts on this day. That is, the time she has spent in prison so far pertains to her previous 6-year sentence (Defenders of HR Center).
March 2017: According to Narges Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, the authorities offered her temporary leave from prison under the condition that she remains silent about her unjust sentence. She would not be allowed to meet anybody, make phonecalls, or give interviews. Narges refused the furlough because under these conditions, she would not be better of than in prison (CHRI).
19th May 2017: Narges Mohammadi, along with other prisoners of conscience, votes in the presidential election. Later, she writes in a letter that she voted for President Rouhani and urges him to improve the conditions for civil society in Iran (CHRI).
28th May 2017: Narges Mohammadi is hospitalized and undergoes surgery for uterine bleeding (IHR). A few days later, and without being granted furlough or time to recover, she is transferred back to Evin prison.
16th/17th August 2017: Narges Mohammadi goes on a hunger strike in solidarity with the former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, who is under house arrest since February 2011. The hunger strike is ended after a few days, as the authorities meet Karroubi’s demand to remove security guards from his home (HRW).
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