BEIRUT: Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has been urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran after a “catastrophic deterioration” of her health, her foundation said Friday.

The Narges Mohammadi Foundation stated that Mohammadi had two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis earlier on Friday.

She was believed to have suffered a heart attack in late March, according to her lawyers who visited her a few days after the incident.

At the time, she appeared pale, underweight, and needed a nurse to help her walk.

The hospital transfer comes “after 140 days of systematic medical neglect,” since her arrest on Dec. 12, the foundation added.

This transfer was done as an unavoidable necessity after prison doctors determined her condition could not be managed on-site, despite standing medical recommendations that she be treated by her specialized team in Tehran.

Mohammadi’s family had advocated for her transfer to adequate medical facilities for weeks.

The foundation quoted her family as saying the transfer was “ a desperate, “ last-minute” action that may be too late to address her critical needs.

Hamidreza Mohammadi, Narges’ brother who lives in Oslo, Norway, said in an audio message shared with The Associated Press by the foundation that her family is “fighting for her life.

On March 24, Narges Mohammadi’s fellow inmates found her unconscious, according to her lawyers.

They later revealed that she had chest pain and breathing difficulties since suffering what was believed to be a heart attack in late March.

Her legal representative in France, Chirinne Ardakani, said at the time that Mohammadi had been denied transfer to the hospital or to visit her cardiologist.

A prison official was present throughout the brief visit by Mohammadi’s lawyers.

Mohammadi, 53, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison.

She is a rights lawyer who was arrested in December during a visit to Mashhad and sentenced to seven more years in prison.

Her family said in February that her health was deteriorating due to a beating she endured during her arrest in December.

The Nobel committee condemned the “ongoing life-threatening mistreatment” of Mohammadi in a statement in February.

In recent days, her blood pressure had been experiencing severe fluctuations, going very high and low, according to her lawyer Mostafa Nili.

She fainted twice due to sudden drops in blood pressure.

Mohammadi was urgently transferred to the hospital and admitted to the cardiac care unit, but her blood pressure continued to fluctuate severely, Nili wrote.

He added that a medical official in Zanjan recommended a one-month suspension of her sentence for treatment, but the public prosecutor in Zanjan referred the matter to his counterpart in Tehran.

Prior to her arrest on Dec. 12, Mohammadi had already been serving a sentence of 13 years and nine months on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against Iran’s government.

She was released on furlough in late 2024 over medical concerns.

During that furlough, Mohammadi continued her activism with public protests and international media appearances.

In February, a Revolutionary Court in Mashhad sentenced Mohammadi to an additional seven years in prison.

Mohammadi had suffered multiple heart attacks while imprisoned before undergoing emergency surgery in 2022, according to her supporters.

In 2023, she became the fifth laureate to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison, further amplifying her voice in support of widespread protests that swept Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

Her selection enraged Iran’s hard-line Shiite theocracy, which increased her prison time and later sent guards to rough her up along with other prisoners who were protesting inside Evin Prison.

Yet Mohammadi remained defiant, even issuing boycott calls for the 2024 election that President Masoud Pezeshkian won.

She maintained that one day Iran’s government would change due to popular pressure.