A few days after the release of an Italian journalist, Iran released a German-Iranian human rights activist who he was sentenced in 2021 to more than 10 years in prison for participation in an illegal organization and propaganda against the regime.

Nahid Taghavi, who was arrested in October 2020 in Tehran, was released and repatriated to Germany where she arrived yesterday, Sunday, as her daughter and Amnesty International said in separate announcements today.

“After more than four years spent as a political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran, my mother Nahid Taghavi has been released and is returning to Germany,” confirmed her daughter Mariam Claren, who posted a photo of herself and her mother smiling at an airport.

The 70-year-old activist was released after her health “seriously deteriorated” in Tehran’s Evin prison, which is known for its extremely difficult detention conditions, according to the NGO.

Taghavi was released after “more than 1,500 days of arbitrary detention” and “landed safely in Germany” yesterday, according to a statement from Amnesty International.

From her arrest to her trial, Taghavi “went above and beyond seven months in solitary confinement” during which she “had to sleep on the floor, without a bed or pillow, was under 24-hour surveillance and was only allowed to go out in the fresh air for 30 minutes a day with her eyes covered,” Amnesty International said.

Human rights defenders and European countries accuse Tehran of holding dozens of foreigners under false pretenses as part of a hostage-taking strategy to secure concessions from the West.

Another German-Iranian national, Yamshid Sharmad, died at the end of October in a prison in Iran.

Iran, which had initially announced his execution, later said his death had occurred earlier, suggesting it was of natural causes.

The announcement, made on October 28, sparked a diplomatic crisis with Berlin recalling its ambassador to Iran and closing three Iranian consulates in Germany.