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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 released and is returning to Germany,” Mariam Claren wrote on X.
Taghavi, 70, was arrested in Tehran in October 2020 and sentenced to 10 years in prison the following August after being found guilty of creating a group “with the aim of undermining national security” and “spreading propaganda against the system”.
Amnesty International has said that the charges, which he denied, appear to be related to a social network article about women’s rights and that the trial was unfair.
In response to a photo of Taghavi and her daughter hugging at the airport on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote: “A very happy moment that Nahid Taghavi can hug her family again.”
There was no immediate comment from the Iranian courts.
Amnesty International said Taghavi’s health had worsened while he was held in the notorious Evin prison – in Iran’s capital Tehran – where it said it was “cruel and cruel” and the medical care was “inadequate”.
He spent seven months in solitary confinement between his arrest and sentencing, during which time he was forced to sleep on the floor, he said.
Taghavi also had herniated discs, osteoporosis, diabetes and high blood pressure, according to her daughter.
In July 2022, Taghavi was granted medical leave from prison to receive treatment for back and neck problems. However, he was sent back to Evin four months later.
A fellow prisoner at Evin, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, warned in June 2023 that Taghavi’s life was “in danger”, saying he was in so much pain that he “couldn’t get up from his bed”.
Taghavi was discharged from hospital twice in 2024.
The first started in January and lasted a few weeks but he was returned to prison before completing treatment, the second started at the end of September. During that time, he wears an electronic tag and has to stay 1km (less than a kilometer) from his home in Tehran.
Amnesty said Taghavi flew back to Germany on Sunday.
“Words cannot express our joy,” Taghavi’s daughter said in a statement published by the human rights group on Monday.
“At the same time, we mourn the four years that were stolen from us and the horrors they faced in Evin prison.”
Amnesty called on Iran to release dozens of other dual nationals, as well as many non-violent prisoners, who it says are being held without reason.
Taghavi’s release comes months after the death of another German-Iranian prisoner sparked a row between Berlin and Tehran.
At the end of October, Baerbock ordered the closure of all three Iranian embassies in Germany after Iranian media reported that Jamshid Sharmahd – a US dissident who was sentenced to death in 2023 following a trial that rights groups said was unfair. to be killed.
However, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said a few days later that Sharmahd “died before the verdict was handed down”. His family said they did not believe anything Iranian officials had said and called for an international investigation.
