“Authoritarian regimes do not always need an executioner’s rope,” the Iranian Nobel peace laureate Narges Mohammadi observes in a forthcoming memoir smuggled from her cell. “Sometimes, they simply wait for the human body to fail – and then make sure no help arrives, or they create conditions in which death can come easily, helping it along by standing in the way of life-saving care.”

Long denied adequate treatment, Ms Mohammadi is now in a critical condition. She was found unconscious in her cell after a suspected heart attack in March and had been experiencing chest pain, loss of consciousness and extreme weight loss. She was finally moved to hospital this month, with authorities approving her transfer to specialist care in Tehran only this week. Supporters fear that she will be sent back to prison if her condition improves.

More than 110 of her fellow Nobel laureates have called for her immediate and unconditional release. The 54-year-old won the peace prize in 2023 “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran, and … to promote human rights and freedom for all”. Her persistence and courage have deeply angered the regime, resulting in multiple jailings. Yet her case also stands for that of many of her compatriots, whose human rights are under double attack.

The government’s brutal crackdown on protests killed thousands of Iranians in January. The following month, the US and Israel launched their illegal and reckless war on Iran. UN experts have warned that the conflict dramatically worsened the human rights situation, describing Iranians as “under attack from outside and from within”.

Thousands of Iranians, including civilians, have been killed by US and Israeli strikes. Police stations and other security facilities – where detainees are often held – have been targeted. While some Iranian dissidents abroad saw an opportunity in the war, others warned against it. Inside the country, protesters who had challenged the regime were horrified as the war’s toll on ordinary Iranians became clear. The US president threatened that “a whole civilisation will die” prior to the truce, and this week declared the ceasefire to be “on life support”. At least he wants an exit. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, remarked last month that “we are awaiting a green light from the US” to return Iran “to the dark and stone ages”.

The war has also, as predicted, made a vicious regime more hardline, led to Iran’s longest ever internet blackout and provided cover for increasing repression. One journalist cited by Amnesty International said that “never before have the streets been so fully dominated by agents standing up for the Islamic Republic”. Security forces have detained people for taking footage or photographs of strikes. Iranian officials have made clear that they regard any form of dissent as siding with the enemy and threatened “a blow more severe” than the January massacre. Meanwhile, a surge in executions has seen state killings carried out almost daily and under more secretive and brutal conditions than previously.

The death penalty is fundamentally wrong. So is the punishment of those who peacefully express their political views. Ms Mohammadi and all political prisoners should be freed unconditionally. But a US administration that has purported to care for Iranians has only intensified their repression and endangered them with its strikes. A lasting ceasefire is also essential to human rights in Iran.

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