German-Iranian woman Nahid Taghavi has been released from prison in Iran, her daughter says.
“It’s over. Nahid is free! After more than four years as a political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran, my mother… has been freed and returned to Germany,” wrote Mariam Claren on X.
Taghavi, 70, was arrested in Tehran in October 2020 and sentenced to 10 years in prison the following August after being convicted of forming a group “with the aim of undermining national security” and “spreading propaganda against the system”.
Amnesty International said the charges, which she denied, were apparently linked to a women’s rights social media account and that the trial was grossly unfair.
Responding to a photo of Taghavi and her daughter hugging at the airport on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote: “A great moment of joy that Nahid Taghavi can finally hug his family again.”
There was no immediate comment from the Iranian judiciary.
Amnesty International said Taghava’s health deteriorated significantly while she was detained in the notorious Evin prison – in the Iranian capital Tehran – where conditions were “cruel and inhumane” and medical care was “inadequate”.
She spent seven months in solitary confinement between her arrest and conviction, during which time she was forced to sleep on the floor, it said.
Taghavi also suffered from a herniated disc, osteoporosis, diabetes and high blood pressure, according to her daughter.
In July 2022, Taghavi was granted emergency medical leave from prison to treat back and neck problems. However, four months later she was returned to Evin.
A fellow prisoner at Evin, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, warned in June 2023 that Taghavi’s life was “in danger”, saying he was in such severe pain that he “can barely get out of bed”.
Taghavi was allowed two more sick days during 2024.
The first started in January and lasted several weeks, but she was returned to prison before she finished treatment, and the second started at the end of September. During these periods, she had to wear an electronic ankle tag and had to stay within 1 km (less than a mile) of her home in Tehran.
Amnesty said Taghavi returned to Germany on Sunday.
“Words cannot describe our joy,” Taghavi’s daughter said in a separate statement released by the human rights group on Monday.
“At the same time, we mourn the four years that were stolen from us and the horror she had to live through in Evin prison.”
Amnesty called on Iran to release dozens of other dual nationals and many other non-violent political prisoners, who it said were being arbitrarily detained.
Taghavi’s release comes months after the death of another jailed German-Iranian dual national sparked a diplomatic row between Berlin and Tehran.
In late October, Baerbock ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates in Germany after Iranian state media reported that Jamshid Sharmahd – an American dissident sentenced to death in 2023 after a trial that rights groups said was unfair – had been convicted to death. executed.
However, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary claimed a few days later that Sharmahd “died before the verdict was carried out”. His family said they did not believe anything the Iranian authorities said and demanded an international investigation.
