German-Iranian woman Nahid Taghavi released from prison

Women's rights activist Nahid Taghavi returned to Germany after over four years in custody in Iran late on Sunday, her family and Amnesty International announced early Monday. 

According to Amnesty, she was tortured and put in solitary confinement, spending over 1,500 days in jail in Iran. 

"It's over. Nahid is free! After more than 4 years as a political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran my mother Nahid Taghavi was freed and is back in Germany," Taghavi's daughter Mariam Claren wrote online, posting an image of her and her mother at an airport.

Taghavi was arrested in October 2020 on a visit to Iran. 

Her more than 10-year sentence for spreading "propaganda" and for membership of an illegal group was passed down in August 2021.

Daughter thanks supporters, says justice served

Mariam Claren had been campaigning for her mother's release while in Germany. 

"My mother is finally home," Claren said on Monday. "Mere words can't describe our joy. From Berlin to Tehran: your solidarity helped to achieve justice." 

In Germany alone, more than 30,000 signatures were gathered demanding her release in recent years, with demonstrations in Berlin, Cologne and elsewhere.

However, Claren also said her mother was one case of many.

"Many more non-violent political prisoners like my mother are still in Iranian jails," she said. "The impunity of the Iranian authorities must come to an end." 

Taghavi, an architect who's lived in Cologne since 1983, was a vocal advocate of democratic and particularly women's rights in Iran.

The speaker of the Bundestag parliament, Bärbel Bas, said in a prior appeal for her release that she was "arrested as a political prisoner solely because of her peaceful realization or her rights to free expression and freedom of assembly."

European countries pressing Iran on prisoners

Late last week, both Switzerland and France summoned Iranian officials to protest their nationals in prison, a day after Iran reported the "suicide" of a Swiss national in jail. 

A few days before that, another prominent prisoner in Iran, Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, was freed. 

Like Taghavi, Sala had spent time in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison.

The fate of a German-Iranian US resident, Jamshid Sharmahd, was also in sharp focus late last year. 

First Iran reported that the activist had been executed, prompting consulate closures and other reactions in Germany, before claiming around a week later that Sharmahd had in fact died shortly before a scheduled execution.

msh/ab (AFP, dpa)