Nahid Taghavi, a woman of German origin, has been released from prison in Iran

German-Iranian woman Nahid Taghavi has been released from prison in Iran, her daughter said.

“It’s all over. Nahid is on the loose! After more than four years of political imprisonment in the Islamic Republic of Iran, my mother… was released and returned to Germany,” Mariam Claren wrote on X.

Taghawi, 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 “to undermine national security” and “spreading propaganda against the system”.

Amnesty International said the charges, which it denies, were clearly linked to a women’s rights social media account and that the trial was grossly unfair.

Responding to a photo of Taghavi and her daughter hugging at the airport on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock wrote: “A great moment of joy that Nahid Taghavi can finally hug his family again.”

There was no comment from the Iranian judiciary.

Amnesty International said Taghavi’s health deteriorated significantly while she was in the notorious Evin prison – in Iran’s capital Tehran – where conditions were “cruel and inhumane” and medical care was “inadequate”.

She spent seven months in solitary confinement between her arrest and conviction, during which time she was forced to sleep on the floor, the report said.

According to her daughter, Tagavi also suffered from a herniated disc, osteoporosis, diabetes and high blood pressure.

In July 2022, Taghavi was granted an emergency release from prison for treatment of back and neck problems. However, after four months, she was returned to Evin.

A cellmate at Evin, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, warned in June 2023 that Taghavi’s life was in “danger”, saying she was in so much pain that “she can barely get out of bed”.

During 2024, Tagavi was granted medical leave twice more.

The first began in January and lasted several weeks, but she was recalled to prison before she finished treatment, the second began at the end of September. During these periods, she was required to wear an electronic ankle tag and stay within 1 km (less than a mile) of her home in Tehran.

Amnesty said Taghavi returned to Germany on Sunday.

“Words cannot describe 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 that were stolen from us and the horror she had to endure in Evin prison.”

Amnesty has called on Iran to release dozens of other dual nationals and many other non-violent political prisoners it says have been arbitrarily detained.

Taghavi’s release comes months after the death of another German-Iranian prisoner sparked a diplomatic row between Berlin and Tehran.

In late October, Berbock ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates in Germany after Iranian state media reported that Jamshid Sharmahd, a dissident living in the United States, had been sentenced to death in 2023 after a trial that rights activists said was unfair. performed.

However, a few days later, a spokesman for the Iranian court said that Sharmad “died before the sentence was carried out”. His family said they did not believe anything Iranian authorities said and demanded an international investigation.