Norway has reacted sharply to the reported confiscation three weeks ago by Iranian authorities of the Nobel Peace Prize gold medal and the diploma awarded to that country's human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi in 2003. It summoned the Iranian Chargé d'affaires to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to protest the matter.
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Thursday this was the first time a Nobel Peace Prize was confiscated by a government. The medal and the diploma were removed from Dr Ebadi's bank box, together with other personal items. "Such an act leaves us feeling shock and disbelief", he added.
Norway also expressed concern over the alleged beating up of Ebadi's husband in Tehran, with Stoere saying the "persecution of Ebadi and her family shows that freedom of expression is under great pressure in Iran."
Stoere reiterated Norway's commitment to continue to engage in international efforts to protect human rights defenders and would follow the situation in Iran closely.
The Norwegian Nobel Peace Committee's permanent secretary, Geir Lundestad, said in Oslo that the move was "unheard of" and "unacceptable."
The seizure of the award, unprecedented in Nobel Peace Prize's 108-year history, apparently seems to be a reaction to Ebadi's criticism of Iran's disputed presidential election in June--in which hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected for a second term--and the subsequent treatment of protesters.
Ebadi, the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the peace prize, said Iranian authorities had also demanded payment of taxes on the $1.3m on the prize though it was exempt under local law. She left the country the day before the June 12 election for a conference and did not return, although she said the "threatening messages" she had received would not deter her.
Iran has not commented officially on the issue.
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