Rights Groups Denounce Re-Arrest of Nobel Laureate in Iran

Dec 13 (Reuters) - ‌International human rights groups have condemned the re-arrest of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi in ‍Iran, ‌with the Nobel committee calling on the Iranian authorities to immediately clarify her whereabouts.

Mohammadi's French lawyer Chirine ⁠Ardakani said on X that the human rights ‌activist was arrested on Friday after denouncing the suspicious death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi at his memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Mashhad prosecutor Hasan Hematifar told reporters on Saturday that Mohammadi was among 39 people arrested after the ⁠ceremony.

Hematifar said she and Alikordi's brother had made provocative remarks at the event and encouraged those present "to chant 'norm‑breaking' slogans" and disturb the ​peace, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

The prosecutor said Mashhad's chief ‌of police and another officer received knife wounds ⁠when trying to manage the scene.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee called on Iranian authorities "to immediately clarify Mohammadi’s whereabouts, ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions".

A video purportedly showing Mohammadi, 53, ​without the mandatory veil, standing on a car with a microphone and chanting "Long Live Iran" in front of a crowd, has gone viral on social media.

Ardakani said Mohammadi was beaten before her arrest.

Reporters Without Borders said four journalists and other participants were also arrested at the memorial for human rights lawyer ​Alikordi, who ‍was found dead in his office ​on December 5.

Authorities gave the cause of his death as a heart attack, but rights groups have called for an investigation into his death.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the crowd also chanted "death to the dictator", a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as: "We fight, we die, we accept no humiliation".

Mohammadi, who received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, has spent more than 10 years of her ⁠life in prison, most recently from November 2021 when she was charged with "propaganda against the state", "acting against national security", and membership of "illegal organizations".

This year's Nobel ​Peace Prize winner, the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, said on Saturday that the opposition's campaign in Venezuela was akin to that taking place in Iran.

"In Oslo this week, the world honored the power of conscience. I said to the 'citizens of the world' that our ‌struggle is a long march toward freedom. That march is not Venezuelan alone. It is Iranian, it is universal," she said on X on Saturday.

(dubai.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; Additional reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Editing by Jan Harvey)