Human Rights Defenders Narges Mohammadi and Alieh Motalebzadeh Arrested in Raid

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, on April 12, security forces raided Narges Mohammadi’s home and arrested her along with journalist Alieh Motalebzadeh who was visiting her at the time.

Narges’ husband, Taghi Rahmani, wrote on Twitter: “Intelligence forces raided our house to arrest Narges and Alieh Motalebzadeh to take them to the Evin Prosecutor’s Office even though they were going to surrender themselves.”

In an interview with Radio Farda on April 11, Narges had said she would be going back to prison despite her recent heart surgery.

Narges Mohammadi who was released from prison after serving a five year sentence in October 2020, was sentenced to a further 30 months imprisonment and 80 lashes for her sit-in protest in Evin Prison against the brutal crackdown on the November 2019 nationwide protests and letters she wrote from prison, which was upheld in September of that year. Vowing to defy the implementation, Narges documented her five arrests since release, which were all accompanied by violence and force.

She was last arrested on 16 November 2021 at the memorial service of Ebrahim Ketabdar who was killed during the November 2019 protests. She was informed that her 30-month-sentence was being enforced while in solitary confinement in Evin Prison the next day.

On 24 January 2022, her husband tweeted that Narges was sentenced to eight years imprisonment and 70 lashes in a trial that only lasted for five minutes. She was transferred to Qarchak Prison on January 19 and hospitalised less than a month later on February 17. In February 2022, she underwent an angioplasty procedure in hospital but was returned to Qarchak prison the next day. She was released on a medical furlough on February 22 after spending 100 days behind bars.

Narges was held in solitary confinement for 64 days in her most recent detention in Evin Prison and was denied access to her lawyer throughout her detention. Prior to her arrest, she had filed a complaint about her previous unlawful solitary confinement along with other civil activists.

Alieh Motalebzadeh is a photojournalist and the Vice President of the Association for the Defence of Iranian Press Freedom. A day after returning to Iran from a workshop on women’s empowerment in Georgia, her home was raided 18 October 2016 and she was summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence a few days later and questioned about attending the workshop.48 She was summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence again on November 26, when she was arrested and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison until her release on bail on 19 December 2016. On 14 August 2017, she was sentenced to three years imprisonment on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” for attending the workshops by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. Her sentence was upheld by Branch 36 of the Court of Appeal in October 2019. Alieh was furloughed from prison for medical treatment on February 23.