Iran has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to more than seven years in prison after she began a hunger strike, supporters said Sunday, as Tehran clamps down on dissent following nationwide protests and the death of thousands by security forces.

The new verdicts against Mohammadi come as Iran tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program to avert a threat of military attack by US President Donald Trump. Iran’s top diplomat insisted on Sunday that Tehran’s strength comes from its ability to “say no to big powers”, taking a maximalist position just after talks in Oman with the US

Mohammadi’s supporters quoted her lawyer as having spoken to her. Mostafa Nili’s lawyer confirmed the sentence on social media platform X, saying it was handed down by the Revolutionary Court in the city of Mashhad on Saturday. Such courts usually deliver verdicts with little or no opportunity for defendants to challenge their charges.

“She was sentenced to six years in prison for ‘gathering and arranging’ and one and a half years for propaganda and a two-year travel ban,” wrote Nili. She was given another two years of internal exile in the city of Khosf, some 740 kilometers southeast of the capital Tehran, the lawyer said.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the penalty. Supporters say Mohammadi has been on hunger strike since February 2. She was arrested in December at a ceremony honoring Khosrow Alikordi, a 46-year-old Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate who was based in Mashhad, where he died on December 6. Footage from the protest showed her shouting, demanding justice for Alicordi and others.

Mohammadi symbol for Iranian activists

In the months before her arrest in December, supporters had warned that Mohammadi, 53, was facing a return to prison after she was granted a sabbatical in December 2024 due to health issues.

Although it was only supposed to last three weeks, Mohammadi’s time out of prison was extended, possibly because activists and Western powers pushed Iran to keep her free. It stayed out even during the 12-day war in June between Iran and Israel.

Mohammadi has continued her activism with public protests and international media appearances, including at one point protesting outside Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where she was held.

Mohammadi served 13 years and nine months on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against the Iranian government. She also supported nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, in which women openly defied the government by not wearing the hijab.

WATCH | Mohammadi’s speech is read at the Nobel Prize ceremony:

Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner defies Iranian oppression with smuggled speech

The children of imprisoned Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf on Sunday. They read from a defiant letter that Mohammadi had smuggled out of her prison cell, calling for continued resistance to the regime.

Mohammadi suffered multiple heart attacks while in prison before emergency surgery in 2022, her supporters say. Her lawyer revealed in late 2024 that doctors had found a bone lesion they feared might be cancerous, and it was later removed.

“Given her ailments, it is expected that she will be temporarily released on bail to receive treatment,” Nili wrote.

However, Iranian officials are signaling a tougher stance against all dissent after the protests. Speaking on Sunday, Iran’s head of justice, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, made comments suggesting many were facing stiff prison terms.

“Look at some individuals who were once with the revolution and followed the revolution,” he said. “Today, what they say, what they write, what statements they make, they are unhappy, they are abandoned (and) they will face harm.”