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New trial against those arrested Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi opened Saturday in her absence, said a lawyer for the women’s rights activist, who declined to attend the hearings.
52-year-old Mohammadi was in prison since November 2021 for several past convictions related to her advocacy against mandatory hijab for women and the death penalty in Iran.
“Ms. Narges Mohammadi’s hearing was held today without her presence at the 29th branch” of the Revolutionary Court in the capital Tehran, her lawyer Mostafa Nili told X.
Neely said his client was “accused of propaganda against the state” because of “her remarks about Dina Ghalibaf and about the boycott of the legislative elections” held in March.
Human rights groups said Ghalibaf, a journalist and student, was arrested after she accused security forces on social media of handcuffing and raping her during a previous arrest at a metro station. She has since been released.
Iranian justice website Mizan Online said on April 22 that Ghalibaf “was not raped” and that she was being prosecuted for “false statement”.
Mohammadi’s family quoted her last month as saying the latest trial should be held in public so that “witnesses and survivors can testify to the sexual assaults committed by the Islamic Republic regime against women.”
The Nobel laureate in March shared an audio message from prison in which she denounced a “full-scale war on women” in the Islamic republic.
In recent months, Iranian police have stepped up enforcement of the Islamic dress code for women, notably using video surveillance.
Under rules adopted shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women in Iran are required to cover their hair and dress modestly in public.
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