“Slaughterhouse Court:” Jailed Nobel Winner Mohammadi Rejects Trial Appearance

Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian human rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin prison, has announced her decision not to appear before the Tehran Revolutionary Court as she faces a new trial.

“The revolutionary court is the slaughterhouse of the youth of Iran, and I will not set foot in this slaughterhouse,” Mohammadi said in a statement posted on her Instagram page before the start of her trial, set for December 19. 

“I refuse to grant credibility or authority to judges affiliated with secret services and courts that engage in staged trials,” she added.

The trial is the first against the activist since her family accepted the 2023 prize on her behalf in Oslo on December 10.

The charges are unclear but are thought to be related to her activities inside Evin prison where she has continued to campaign against the authorities and the mandatory hijab law for women.

The family has said that if convicted in this case, she risked being required to serve her sentence in a prison outside Tehran.

They also said that Mohammadi, who has not seen her exiled husband and children for several years, remains deprived of the right to make phone calls.

Mohammadi has been behind bars since November 2021.

During the past two decades, she has been arrested 13 times, and sentenced five times to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.

“The fractured walls of the tyranny's prison are powerless to stifle the voices of us, the incarcerated,” Mohammadi said in her latest statement.