Iran seizes rights lawyer's Nobel Peace Prize medal

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian authorities have confiscated Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi's medal, her lawyer and Norway's government said Thursday, in a sign of the increasingly drastic steps Tehran is taking against any dissent.

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

Ebadi, a human rights lawyer, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts in promoting democracy. She has long faced harassment from Iranian authorities for her activities -- including a raid on her office last year in which files were confiscated.

The seizure of her prize is an expression of the Iranian government's harsh approach to anyone it considers an opponent -- particularly since the massive street protests triggered by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 re-election.

Norwegian authorities were told that Ebadi's peace prize medal was seized "within the last week or so" from a safe-deposit box in Iran along with personal effects including the diploma awarded with the medal, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said. Spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund said Norwegian authorities have been "in touch" with Ebadi since the incident.

Ebadi has criticized the Iranian government's crackdown on demonstrations by those claiming the June vote was stolen from a pro-reform candidate through massive fraud.

Ebadi was out of the country at the time of the vote and has not returned since, saying she is "in an effective state of exile." In the days after the vote, she urged the international community to reject the outcome and called for a new election monitored by the United Nations.

During the past months, hundreds of pro-reform activists have been arrested, and a mass trial has sentenced dozens to prison terms.

In Tehran, Ebadi's lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, confirmed the medal was confiscated and said it was seized on a September order from a judge at Tehran's Revolutionary Court. The lawyer said she was not aware of the content of the order because the court has not allowed her to study it yet.

"Ebadi's husband found out some 20 days ago that all medals, including the Nobel one, were confiscated from their safe deposit box," Sotoudeh said.

Calls to Iranian judiciary officials were not returned Thursday.

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."

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry summoned Iran's charge d'affaires in Norway Wednesday to protest the confiscation, Imerslund said.

The Foreign Ministry also "expressed grave concern" about Ebadi's husband, who it said was arrested in Tehran and "severely beaten" earlier this fall, after which his pension and bank account were frozen.

Ebadi has represented opponents of Iran's regime before but not in the mass trial that started in August of more than 100 prominent pro-reform figures and activists. They are accused of plotting to overthrow the cleric-led regime during the postelection turmoil.

The Iranian Embassy in Norway refrained from giving a comment.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee's permanent secretary, Geir Lundestad, said the move was "unheard of" and "unacceptable." He told The Associated Press that the committee was planning to send a letter of protest to Iranian authorities before the end of the week.

Ebadi could not be reached on Thursday for comment.

Ebadi said in an interview published Nov. 17 in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that her apartment, pension and her bank account and those of her relatives had been seized, along with her Nobel and Legion of Honor.

"I live in an effective state of exile," she was quoted as saying from a hotel in New York, where she had been attending U.N. meetings. "They say I owe them $410,000 in back taxes because of the Nobel; it's a complete lie, given that the Iranian fiscal law says that prizes are excluded."

She nevertheless said she plans to return to Iran when she can be more useful in the country than outside it.

"Nothing frightens me anymore, even if they threaten to arrest me for fiscal evasion upon my return," she said.

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MacDougall reported from Oslo, Norway.