Iran refusing to allow independent medical examination of detained Nobel winner: family

Iranian authorities are refusing to allow an independent medical examination of Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi after she was beaten during her arrest last week, her family said on Tuesday.

Her brother Hamid Reza Mohammadi, who lives in Norway, told reporters in Paris via video link that she had informed her other brother in Iran in a brief telephone call late on Sunday that police had beaten her with truncheons on her face, head and neck.

Mohammadi, who won the Nobel prize in 2023, was detained along with dozens of activists on Friday after addressing a memorial ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad for the lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead earlier this month.

“She has bruises on her neck and face,” Hamid Reza Mohammadi said. “She was in a very bad condition physically.”

“My brother (inside Iran) has tried to convince them to agree for an independent doctor to examine her to make sure she has no internal bleeding in the head or any other organ.”

“But they have not agreed to it. We are very worried about how she is being held, where she is being held and how she is treated,” he added.

Her husband Taghi Rahmani, who lives in Paris, added: “My brother-in-law asked for an independent doctor to examine her but they refused. Now we are very worried about what will happen to her.”

Her supporters had said on Monday that prison authorities twice took Mohammadi to hospital after her arrest.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, Amnesty International accused Iranian security forces of carrying out “torture and other ill-treatment” during the arrest, including by “violently beating” Narges Mohammadi and her fellow activist Alieh Motalbzadeh.

Iranian authorities have said 39 people were detained at the memorial ceremony, including Alikordi’s brother Javad.

But the Mohammadi family’s Paris-based lawyer Chirinne Ardakani said “at least 50 were arbitrarily detained” at the ceremony, which she said was attended by some 1,500 people and was addressed by Narges Mohammadi amid a heavy presence by security forces.