US calls for unconditional release of Iran's jailed Nobel Peace laureate

The United States on Thursday demanded Iran release Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi with no conditions, a day after her release for three weeks of medical leave.

"Her deteriorating health is a direct result of the abuses that she's endured at the hands of the Iranian regime," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in a press briefing on Thursday.

"We call again, just as we've done before, for the immediate and unconditional release of Narges and other political prisoners," he added.

Mohammadi, 52, has spent much of the last two decades in and out of prison. She is currently serving a 13-year sentence in Tehran's Evin prison.

Earlier in October, Mohammadi’s family accused Iran's security and judicial authorities of repeatedly blocking her transfer to hospital for an angiography procedure.

Her situation "continues to be deeply troubling and unfortunate, because she should have never been incarcerated in the first place," Patel said.

Mohammadi was filmed being taken off an ambulance on Wednesday, holding a picture of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman whose death in custody sparked widespread protests in 2022.

"Hello freedom! Woman Life Freedom! Freedom is our right," she shouted while seated on a stretcher.

She was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2023 for her three-decade campaign for women's rights in Iran.