Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi arrested in Iran, alongside other human rights defenders and journalists

Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi arrested in Iran, alongside other human rights defenders and journalists

On 12 December 2025, plain clothed security forces violently detained 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi;  other human rights defenders  including Alieh Motalebzadeh, Sepideh Gholian, Hasti Amiri, Pouran Nazemi; and other participants at the seventh day memorial ceremony of the late lawyer Khosrow Alikordi in the city of Mashhad, according to witnesses. The Free Narges Coalition condemns the arrest and calls on Iranian authorities to release Mohammadi and the other detainees. 

After months of threats, Iranian authorities have re-arrested the human rights defender, writer, journalist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who had been conditionally released from prison a year ago. According to the Narges Foundation, Mohammadi was detained after giving a speech at a memorial service for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi in the city of Mashhad, Khorasan province in the northeast of Iran. Alikordi, a prominent human rights lawyer with a history of defending protesters and dissidents in Iran, was found dead on 5 December 2025 in circumstances deemed suspicious by civil rights groups in and outside of Iran. On 12 December, Mashhad’s General Prosecutor denied all allegations of murder of the late Khosrow Ali Kurdi, stating that he died of heart complications.

Thembiko ….

In a photo and a video verified by the Free Narges Coalition, Narges Mohammadi is seen at the memorial service in Mashhad after giving a speech, chanting “Long live Iran”, alongside Khosrow Alikordi’s brother and human rights lawyer, Javad Alikordi, and the human rights defender, writer, and freelance journalist Sepideh Gholian.

Security forces also arrested Alieh Motalebzadeh who had been imprisoned between October 2020 and February 2023. The women’s rights defender and independent photojournalist is also the deputy head of the Iranian Association to Defend Freedom of the Press, and has recently undergone medical surgery. Three other women — the human rights defenders Hasti Amiri, Sepideh Gholian, and Pouran Nazemi — were also among the detained, according to reports.

The Free Narges Coalition Steering Committee said: “The violent arrests of Narges Mohammadi, Alieh Motalebzadeh, Sepideh Gholian, Hasti Amiri, Pouran Nazemi, and other memorial service participants in Mashhad today is an outrageous assault on all human rights defenders and journalists in Iran, and is clearly evidence of a renewed crackdown on freedom of assembly, press freedoms, and human rights following the recent death of Kosrow Alikordi. Since the suspension of her sentence one year ago, Narges Mohammadi has been threatened with reincarceration: today the Iranian authorities acted on their threats. Our mobilisation will continue until Narges Mohammadi and all detained human rights defenders and journalists are unconditionally free. They must be liberated at once.”

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Iranian authorities have not yet communicated any information on the whereabouts of Mohammadi and her colleagues, nor the formal reason for their detention. Mohammadi was released from Evin prison in December 2024, when her sentence was suspended for medical reasons following surgery in mid-November, in accordance with recommendations from her doctors. Since her release, she has been regularly targeted by state-backed harassment and threats. In July 2025, the Ministry of Information warned Mohammadi’s lawyers against her conducting media interviews, mobilising rights groups, or promoting human rights. 

Narges Mohammadi is a human rights defender, author, journalist, and deputy director and spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) in Iran. Mohammadi has spent more than 10 years of her life in prison, most recently from November 2021 to December 2024, in relation to more than 13 years worth of sentences on charges including committing “propaganda activity against the state” and “collusion against state security.” She is the recipient of numerous international awards for her tireless struggle for human rights, including the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, the 2023 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, the 2023 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, and the 2022 Reporters Without Borders Prize for Courage.

This statement is issued by the Free Narges Coalition Steering Committee, and does not necessarily reflect the position of all Coalition members. The Steering Committee is led by the Narges Foundation, PEN America, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and Front Line Defenders.