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Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Jailed Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has temporarily been released for 21 days to recover from surgery related to cancer, her family said Wednesday. "She is in an ambulance on her way home," according to a family statement. The family will have to pay a fee for the ambulance service. They told CNN that Mohammadi is "unable to walk."
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On Tuesday, an Iranian prosecutor suspended her prison term for three weeks for a "medical furlough." Her family and legal team had requested a three-month leave for her recovery consistent with medical advice.
The Narges Foundation, which is run by Mohammadi's family, criticized the ruling.
"After over a decade of imprisonment, Narges required specialized medical care in a safe, sanitary environment -- a basic human right," the foundation wrote Wednesday in part. "As doctors have emphasized, a minimum of three months' recovery is crucial for her healing," it added.
Mohammadi, arguably Iran's most prominent activist for human rights and a 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been held since 2021 in Iran's notorious Evin Prison for political dissidents and "enemies" of the Iranian dictatorship.
Recently, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was among high-profile international figures to call for Mohammadi's freedom.
Mohammadi is currently serving a 13-year sentence on charges related to her activism for human and women's rights. Her sentence also included 154 lashes.
Iranian authorities hospitalized the Nobel Peace laureate at the end of October following international pressure on Tehran to provide her with much-needed medical care to remove part of a bone in her lower right leg where doctors found a suspected cancerous lesion following a 2021 heart attack.
Unlike a typical "medical furlough" which would have allowed the recovery period to count toward her prison term, according to the foundation, the suspension means that upon her return to prison from recovery, Mohammadi will be required to serve an additional 21 days.
Her family criticized the decision Wednesday as "too little, too late."
Mohammadi was in prison when she received the Nobel Peace Prize and was at the forefront of mass women-led protests in Iran in 2022 sparked by the police killing of Mahsa Amini. She was arrested 13 times and was sentenced to more than 32 years of imprisonment.
Meanwhile on Oct. 19, an additional six months were added to her sentence on charges related to her protest against the Aug. 6 execution of a protester.
Mohammadi's temporary release arrived the same week the regime unexpectedly freed Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi "after serving" a sentence to death after more than two years for allegedly spreading propaganda against the state likewise stemming from the deadly mass protests following Amini's 2022 mysterious death while held by the regime.
