Iran snatches Nobel Peace Prize

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 they are 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.