German-Iranian woman Nahid Taghavi has been released from an Iranian prison, her daughter said.
“It’s over. Nahid is free! After spending more than four years as a political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran, my mother has been released and returned to Germany,” Mariam Claren wrote to X.
Taghavi, 70, was arrested in Tehran in October 2020 and arrested in Tehran the following year after being found guilty of forming a group with the “purpose of disrupting national security” and “spreading propaganda against the regime.” He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in September.
Amnesty International said the charges, which she denied, were clearly related to a social media account about women’s rights and the trial was grossly unfair.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Verbock responded to a photo of Taghavi and her daughter hugging each other at the airport on Sunday, writing: “A moment of great joy as Nahid Taghavi can finally hug his family again.” .
There was no immediate comment from Iranian judicial authorities.
Amnesty International said Taghavi’s health deteriorated significantly while being held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison in the capital Tehran, where conditions were “cruel and inhumane” and medical care was lacking. He said it was “insufficient.”
The newspaper said she spent seven months in solitary confinement between her arrest and conviction, during which time she was forced to sleep on the floor.
Taghavi also suffered from a herniated disc, osteoporosis, diabetes and high blood pressure, according to his daughter.
In July 2022, Taghavi was granted emergency leave from prison to receive treatment for back and neck problems. However, she was sent back to Evin after four months.
Narges Mohammadi, a fellow Evin prison inmate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, warned in June 2023 that Taghavi’s life was “in danger” and that she “can barely get out of bed.” He said he was suffering from severe pain.
Mr Taghavi was granted two more medical leaves in 2024.
The first began in January and lasted several weeks, but he was recalled to prison before treatment was complete, and the second began at the end of September. During that time, she had to wear an electronic tag on her ankle and stay within 1 kilometer (less than a mile) of her home in Tehran.
Amnesty International said Mr Taghavi returned to Germany by plane on Sunday.
“Words cannot express 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 taken from us and the horrors she had to endure in Evin Prison.”
Amnesty International called on Iran to release dozens of other dual nationals and many other non-violent political prisoners, saying they were being arbitrarily detained.
Taghavi’s release comes months after a diplomatic row erupted between Berlin and Tehran over the death of another imprisoned German-Iranian dual citizen.
Burbok in late October after Iranian state media reported that US-based dissident Jamshid Sharmahd had been sentenced to death in 2023 in a trial that rights groups said was unfair. He ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates in Germany. Executed.
However, a spokesperson for Iran’s judiciary claimed days later that Sharmad “died before the sentence could be carried out.” The family said she did not believe anything Iranian authorities said and called for an international investigation.
