Iran seizes rights lawyer's Nobel Peace medal

Al-Shorfa and wire services
For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-12-01

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi at a press conference in Seoul, Aug. 11. (Reuters/Jo Yong-Hak)

TEHRAN — Iranian authorities have confiscated Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi's medal, the human rights lawyer said Nov. 26, an example of Tehran’s increasingly drastic measures against dissent.

In Norway, where the peace prize is awarded, the government said the confiscation of the gold medal was a shocking first in the history of the 108-year-old prize.

Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts to promote democracy. She has long been harassed by the Republican Guards and the Basij militia for her activities, including threats against relatives and a raid on her office last year.

Acting on orders from Tehran's Revolutionary Court, authorities confiscated the peace prize medal about three weeks ago from a safe-deposit box in Iran, Ebadi said in a phone interview from London.

Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to be awarded the peace prize and the first female judge in Iran, said she would not be intimidated, and that her absence from the country since June did not mean she felt exiled.

Ebadi left Iran a day before the June elections to attend a conference in Spain and has yet to return. In the days following the vote, she urged the international community to reject the outcome and called for a new election, monitored by the UN.

"Nobody is able to send me into exile from my home country," she said. "I have received many threatening messages...They said they would detain me if I returned, or that they would make it unsafe for me wherever I am. But my activities are legal and nobody can ban me from my legal activities."

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere called the move "shocking" and said it was "the first time a Nobel Peace Prize has been confiscated by national authorities." Stoere also "expressed grave concern" about Ebadi's husband, who was arrested in Tehran and "severely beaten" earlier this fall, after which his pension and bank account were frozen. The Iranian Embassy in Norway did not comment on the matter.

Norwegian Nobel Committee Permanent Secretary Geir Lundestad said the move was "unheard of" and "unacceptable." He told the

[

Bookmarking

Please comment on this article so that we can improve the experience of viewing this website.