The activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkol Karman has joined a mounting campaign calling for the immediate release of a prominent anti-death penalty advocate sentenced to 16 years in prison for campaigning against the death penalty. 

Karman, in a statement posted on Facebook, called on Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani to immediately release the activist Mohammadi.

She pointed out that the defense of human rights issues is not a crime, adding, “Mohammadi should be released immediately.” 

Narges Mohammadi, who is a prominent advocate of human rights and a prisoner of conscience, is currently serving sentences for many charges related to her activism in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.

In May 2015, Mohammadi was arrested on charges of “establishing and running the illegal splinter group Legam”, a campaign against the death penalty in Iran. 

It has been reported that she is critically ill with an unidentified illness.