TEHRAN: A new trial against jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi opened Saturday in her absence, said a lawyer for the women’s rights activist who has refused to attend hearings.
Mohammadi, 52, has been jailed since November 2021 over several past convictions relating to her advocacy against the obligatory hijab for women and capital punishment in Iran.
“The hearing of Ms Narges Mohammadi was held today without her presence at the 29th Branch” of the Revolutionary Court in the capital Tehran, said lawyer Mostafa Nili on social media platform X.
Nili said his client was “accused of propaganda against the state” over “her remarks on Dina Ghalibaf and on the boycott of legislative elections” held in March.
Rights groups have said Ghalibaf, a journalist and student, was arrested after accusing security forces on social media of putting her in handcuffs and sexually assaulting her during a previous arrest at a metro station. She has since been released.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website said on April 22 that Ghalibaf “had not been raped” and that she was being prosecuted for making a “false statement.”
Mohammadi’s family quoted her last month as saying that the latest trial should be held in public so “witnesses and survivors can testify to the sexual assaults perpetrated by the Islamic republic regime against women.”
The Nobel laureate in March shared an audio message from prison, in which she decried a “full-scale war against women” in the Islamic republic.
Iranian police in recent months have intensified enforcement of the country’s Islamic dress code for women, notably making use of video surveillance.
Under rules adopted shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution, women in Iran are required to cover their hair and dress modestly in public spaces.
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Iranian Nobel laureate Mohammadi absent as new trial opens: lawyer
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Iranian Nobel laureate Mohammadi absent as new trial opens: lawyer
- “The hearing of Ms Narges Mohammadi was held today without her presence at the 29th Branch” of the Revolutionary Court in the capital Tehran, said lawyer Mostafa Nili
- Nili said his client was “accused of propaganda against the state“
Series of Israeli strikes hit Lebanon
BEIRUT: A series of Israeli strikes hit south and east Lebanon on Friday, state media reported, as Israel’s army said it was targeting Hezbollah sites, the latest such raids despite a year-old ceasefire.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes in around a dozen locations, including up to around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, citing at times “heavy raids.”
Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, and has also kept troops in five areas it deems strategic.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “struck a training and qualification compound” used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force where operatives “underwent shooting exercises and additional training on the use of various types of weapons.”
The army also “struck additional Hezbollah military infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon,” it said.
According to the ceasefire, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers from the border with Israel, and have its military infrastructure there dismantled.
Under a government-approved plan, Lebanon’s army is to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure south of the Litani by the end of the year, before tackling the rest of the country.
The sites struck on Friday were generally north of the river.
Earlier this week, Israel launched a series of strikes on southern Lebanon, also saying it hit a Hezbollah training center and other targets.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes in around a dozen locations, including up to around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, citing at times “heavy raids.”
Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, and has also kept troops in five areas it deems strategic.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “struck a training and qualification compound” used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force where operatives “underwent shooting exercises and additional training on the use of various types of weapons.”
The army also “struck additional Hezbollah military infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon,” it said.
According to the ceasefire, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers from the border with Israel, and have its military infrastructure there dismantled.
Under a government-approved plan, Lebanon’s army is to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure south of the Litani by the end of the year, before tackling the rest of the country.
The sites struck on Friday were generally north of the river.
Earlier this week, Israel launched a series of strikes on southern Lebanon, also saying it hit a Hezbollah training center and other targets.
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