Jailed Baha’i Mahvash Sabet 'Life at Risk' from Medical Issues, Daughter Says

Mahvash Sabet, a 71-year-old Baha'i prisoner, has been transferred to Rajaei Hospital in Tehran due to worsening health. Her daughter Negar Sabet has warned that Sabet's life is at risk.

Sabet is currently awaiting further medical tests as her condition continues to cause concern.

"My mother was transferred to Rajaei Hospital and has been hospitalized for the past three days," said Negar Sabet, explaining that Sabet is suffering from cardiac health issues. 

"She has been waiting for an angiography at the hospital and after that, it will be determined what kind of surgery her heart needs," she added. 

Sabet also developed a lung condition during her previous imprisonment. 

She served a ten-year sentence from 2008 to 2017 on charges of being a member of an informal group of Iranian Baha’is who oversaw the basic needs of the country's Baha’i community. After her release, she was arrested again in 2022, and is now serving a second 10-year jail sentence.

Her illness worsened after she contracted covid during an interrogation and she inhaled smoke from a fire at Evin Prison.

“After enduring 13 years of unjust imprisonment, it is now time for my mother to be immediately and unconditionally released to receive proper medical care," her daughter told Iran International. 

"Her health has reached a critical state, and her life is now in danger.”

Sabet was arrested on July 31, 2022. The preliminary court sentenced her to 10 years in prison on charges of leading an “illegal group with the intention of disrupting national security.”

In 2017, Sabet was recognized as an International Writer of Courage by PEN International, the literary freedom of expression group.

She has also received a prestigious literary award in Norway and was made an honorary member of PEN in Austria and Denmark.

On Wednesday, Narges Mohammadi, a prominent human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who had repeatedly been denied access to medical centers for health checks, was temporarily released for treatment.

The Tehran prosecutor’s office suspended her sentence based on a forensic medical opinion following her recent surgery to remove a tumor and undergo a bone graft.