Justice: German-Iranian Nahid Taghavi free

After several years in prison in Iran, the German-Iranian Nahid Taghavi is free. The human rights organization Amnesty International said the woman from Cologne landed safely in Germany on Sunday. Taghavi spent more than 1,500 days in detention in Iran. Mariam Claren, Taghavi’s daughter, said, according to Amnesty: “My mother is finally home. Words are not enough to describe our joy.”

At the same time, she mourned the four years “that were robbed from us and the horror she had to experience in Ewin Prison,” it said. In a post on Platform X, Claren thanked everyone who worked to free her mother. For further information, she initially referred to the aid organization Hawar Help.

The architect Taghavi was arrested in October 2020. Iran’s judiciary reportedly sentenced her to more than ten years in prison for, among other things, “leading an illegal group.” Amnesty spoke of an “unfair trial” and criticized that the charges were fabricated.

According to Hawar Help, Taghavi is weakened but still fighting. “Given the circumstances, she is not doing well,” said the chairwoman of Hawar Help, Düzen Tekkal, to the German Press Agency. “But the fighting spirit remains. She is a fighter and she remains a fighter.”

Taghavi was accompanied from Iran by employees of the Foreign Office and was met by her daughter at Cologne-Bonn Airport, Tekkal said. After the long imprisonment, she will first try to gain “something like normality” with her daughter in Cologne. Prison left emotional, psychological and physical traces.

“It is a day of painful joy because Taghavi leaves a Kurdish friend behind in the Ewin torture prison,” said Tekkal, referring to human rights activist Pachshan Asisi, who was sentenced to death. Amnesty International, among others, also reported on the case.

The release of Taghavi was “a victory of quiet diplomacy together with loud activism,” emphasized the chairwoman of Hawar Help. “It’s worth standing up for human rights, even against an unjust regime like the one in the Islamic Republic.”

Baerbock: “Great moment of joy”

According to her family, Taghavi was granted parole in September and was released from the notorious Ewin Prison. As a condition, she had to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, as she had done during a previous prison leave, and was not allowed to move further than one kilometer from her apartment in the capital Tehran.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on X that it was a “great moment of joy that Nahid Taghavi can finally hug her family again.” CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen also said on X that he had rarely been so happy about a photo and the accompanying message. The fact that Taghavi is free and back in Germany is “wonderful and, above all, the achievement of her daughter, who fought day and night for her mother’s release.”

Accusations of the leadership in Tehran

Human rights activists repeatedly accuse the Islamic Republic of holding foreigners hostage in order to free Iranian officials convicted abroad. Tehran denies this.

Tehran recently detained an Italian journalist for around three weeks. She was released on Wednesday. On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that an Iranian imprisoned in Italy, Mohammad Abedini, was released. Abedini was arrested in Milan in mid-December at the request of the USA. He is accused of passing on drone technology and violating sanctions.

Last week, France also summoned the Iranian ambassador to Paris to put pressure on the French who were being held by the Islamic Republic. In this context, France advised its citizens against traveling to Iran and recommended that French people staying there leave the country immediately “due to the risk of arbitrary arrests and detentions.”