The European Union (EU) has condemned the recent sentencing of leading human rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi to eight years in prison and more than 70 lashes, and expressed worry for her poor health condition.

Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, who is based in France, wrote on Twitter on January 23 that the sentence was handed out by a court after a hearing that lasted only five minutes in Iran.

The details of both the case and verdict against Narges remain unclear.

“The EU calls on Iran to comply with its obligations under international law and urgently release Narges, taking into account her deteriorating health condition,” said a spokesman in a statement.

The bloc said enforcing the sentence “is against the universal principles of human rights and the rule of law”.

Narges is a colleague of Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaigner Shirin Ebadi, who now lives outside Iran, and has been repeatedly jailed by Iranian authorities.

She was released from prison in October 2020, but then suddenly rearrested in Karaj outside Tehran in November last year, while attending a memorial for a man killed during protests nationwide two years earlier.

Amnesty International at the time condemned Narges’ arrest as “arbitrary” and described her as a “prisoner of conscience targeted solely for her peaceful human rights activities”.

Narges, who has long campaigned against the use of the death penalty in Iran, has been working with families seeking justice for loved ones killed by security forces in the 2019 protests before her latest arrest.

She had been handed a sentence of 30 months in prison and 80 lashes on charges of “propaganda” against Iran’s Islamic system in May last year, even while out of jail.

Activists have decried what they see as increased repression in the country in recent months, including the jailing of campaigners and greater use of the death penalty.

Prominent detainees have also died in prison, such as the well-known poet Baktash Abtin. – AFP, January 30, 2022.