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C of E responds to Tommy Robinson’s carols event with ‘Christmas is for all’ message

The Church of England has released a video in response to a Christmas carols event on Saturday being organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson amid calls from a growing number of senior church figures to challenge Christian nationalism. In the 43-second video, Christmas Isn’t Cancelled, posted on the church’s YouTube channel, more than 20 people from the archbishop of York to schoolchildren speak about the “joy, love and hope” of Christmas. The message is “a simple reminder that Christmas belongs to all of us, and everyone is welcome to celebrate”, the C of E said. A number of its leaders are speaking out against the dangers of Christian nationalism and the appropriation of Christian symbols to bolster the anti-migrant views of Robinson and his supporters taking part in the “Unite the Kingdom” event. Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury, warned of the potential “weaponisation” of events such as the one planned for Saturday, and said the C of E must be “absolutely clear” that the true Christian message was one of compassion and welcome to all. Arun Arora, the bishop of Kirkstall and co-lead bishop on racial justice, said Christianity was being used as “a flag of convenience by the far right; a nationalist ideology cloaking itself in religion”. He added: “Any attempt to co-opt Christianity to particular political agendas or ideologies should be viewed with deep suspicion. The far right has often sought to wrap itself in flags or symbols, which belong to us all, and now they are seeking to do it with Christmas – that should be resisted.” Anderson Jeremiah, the bishop of Edmonton, said he had written to parishes across the capital to encourage diverse congregations at a time when “divisive” figures were promoting the “false, toxic premise that British identity equals Christian identity equals white European identity”. The perception that the decline of Christianity in Britain was a direct result of immigration was misplaced, he wrote in his letter. In fact, migrants had boosted church congregations. In an interview, he said people of “African-Caribbean heritage, from Nigeria and Ghana, people from south-east Asia, from India and Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka” comprised a significant proportion of Anglican churchgoers in London, while Indian priests and Filipino Catholics had revitalised mass attendances. He added: “We must reject this brazen populist religious nationalism before we walk into crisis. The Christian call is to unconditionally follow the virtues of hospitality, generosity, kindness and compassion that Jesus commanded.” Four bishops in the diocese of Southwark issued a statement earlier this week in direct response to the far-right organised carols event. “Any co-opting or corrupting of the Christian faith to exclude others is unacceptable, and we are gravely concerned about the use of Christian symbols and rhetoric to apparently justify racism and anti-migrant rhetoric,” they said. “We call upon all Christians to commit themselves afresh to work with others in building a more United Kingdom, where the values of love, humility and compassion shine through in every community.” In an article in the Independent on Friday, David Walker, the bishop of Manchester, wrote there was “something especially offensive about appropriating this great Christian festival of light triumphing over darkness as a prop in a dim culture war”. Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) who has increasingly cloaked his far-right anti-migrant views with Christian rhetoric and symbolism since his conversion to Christianity while in prison, has said publicly that Saturday’s carols event in Westminster was “non-political”. However, in emails to supporters, he has said the carols concert was “a rally for our values, a beacon of hope amid the chaos of mass migration and cultural erosion that threatens our way of life … It’s a statement that Britain belongs to the British people, and our Christian heritage will not be silenced.” The theologian Dr Krish Kandiah, the founder and director of the Sanctuary Foundation that welcomes refugees, said the values driving Robinson’s rhetoric were not the values of the Bible. “He does not speak for all Christians. His core principles are not in line with the Christmas message,” he said. “The Christmas story is not about fear or exclusion, it is about hospitality, vulnerability, grace and love.” A number of alternative events have been organised for Saturday, including services of worship and a counter-protest under the slogan: “Don’t let the far right divide us at Christmas.” At the latter, the musician Billy Bragg will perform a song written in response to Christian nationalism.

New Israeli barrier will slice through precious West Bank farmland

The death knell for the Palestinian village of Atouf, on the western slopes of the Jordan valley, arrived in the form of a trail of paper, a series of eviction notices taped to homes, greenhouses and wells, marking a straight line across the open fields. The notices, which appeared overnight, informed the local farmers that their land would be confiscated and that they had seven days from the date of their delivery, 4 December, to vacate their properties. A military road and accompanying barrier was to be built by Israel right through the area. Lawyers for the Atouf village council have lodged an appeal, but long and bitter experience has taught Palestinians here to have low expectations of Israeli courts. “The Israeli military can do anything they like. They don’t care about the law or anything else,” said Ismael Bsharat, a local farmer. Similar eviction notices had been delivered on the same day all along an almost 14-mile (22km) strip of Palestinian farmland running north to south through Atouf, tracing out the route of the planned road and fence. And this week it became clear that this abrupt gash across Palestinian land was the first section of a new line of division that would redraw the map of the West Bank. This week, Israel’s defence ministry made clear that this would mark only the first section of a new 5.5bn-shekel (£1.3bn) barrier that will eventually run 300 miles, from the Golan Heights on the Syrian border to the north all the way down to the Red Sea near Eilat. Labelled “Crimson Thread” by the Israeli military, the barrier will split countless Palestinian communities along its route. The army says the barrier is being built for security reasons, but human rights activists say there has been only one lethal incident anywhere near Atouf in recent years in which an Israeli was killed. They argue the real motive is land seizure and the further strangling of Palestine’s prospects as a viable state. “It is happening all through the Jordan valley, especially in the north. Israel is pushing forward, and accelerating the ethnic cleansing of this area,” said Dror Etkes, an Israeli activist who is the founder of the Kerem Navot organisation, which monitors Israeli land policy in occupied Palestine. Israel has consistently rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing from Israeli and international human rights organisations, including UN rapporteurs, dismissing them as fabricated propaganda. It also denies the colonisation of occupied territory by settlers is illegal under international law. Etkes said almost all (85%) of the 1,000 dunams (100 hectares) subjected to the initial round of eviction orders around Atouf were privately owned. These fields are among the most fertile in the West Bank, their rich dark-brown soil built up over millennia by tributaries flowing east to the River Jordan. The area has long been one of Palestine’s breadbaskets. Most of the affected families had farmed the land for generations, and some had bought new parcels at high prices in recent years. All held title deeds, but none of that is likely to alter the outcome of the looming land grab. Lawyers for the local Palestinian municipality lodged an appeal against the eviction in an Israeli court but had received no response by the end of this week. The expectation is that Israeli settlers will take over the excised land. A new settlement is planned just west of the new military road. Across the West Bank, settlements are being planned and built at an unprecedented rate. According to the Peace Now advocacy group, tenders have been published for more than 5,600 housing units so far this year – an all-time record and 50% more than the previous peak in 2018. Those are only the officially endorsed settlements. New settler outposts (often just a small cluster of huts or portable buildings) are springing up along the valley at an accelerating pace. Though officially unauthorised, they are enabled in practice by the army and police, backed by far-right members of the governing coalition. At least one Palestinian farmer in Atouf has already begun moving his livestock in anticipation of eviction, but Bsharat said he would stay put and see what happens. He has little choice. On a winter evening this week, he was going to market with boxes of fresh green peppers grown in his plastic-sheet greenhouses. All his 12 dunams (1.2 hectares) of land lie east of the proposed military road and barrier, and are fed by water pipes running from the hilltops to the west. Those will all be severed when the army arrives to build the road and the barrier. “What can I do? I can’t farm without water,” Bsharat said. Abdullah Bsharat, the village council leader (who is from the same extended family as Ismael) predicted that up to 40 families from Atouf would be cut off from the village and their water supply. “All these families have title deeds,” he said. “They grow grapes, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, za’atar and olives. This land is very rich and that is the reason it is being taken. The whole aim is to take it over for settlers to use it.” The council leader said he had been told by Israeli officers that the road and barrier would together be 50 metres wide, but Palestinian buildings or farmwork would not be allowed along a 200-metre cordon on either side. There was no official confirmation from the army of such a wide exclusion zone, but if true it would greatly increase the economic damage inflicted on Atouf. At one point along its course the planned barrier will loop around and completely enclose a Palestinian sheep herding community at Khirbet Yarza, who have so far resisted increasing pressure from settlers and the army to move off their 400 dunams of land,. It is not clear if they will be left any means to get in and out of the fence that will be built around them. The “Crimson Thread” plan put forward this week by Israel’s defence ministry presented the current barrier as just the first part of a vast undertaking, walling off the Jordan valley from the rest of the West Bank, to “strengthen national security and strategic control of the eastern border”. Maj Gen Eran Ofir, the senior defence ministry official responsible for building walls and barriers, said: “The security barrier whose construction we began today will extend over approximately 500km along the entire eastern border of the state of Israel.” He added: “It will be a smart border, which will include a physical fence and a collection tool with intelligence sensors, radars, cameras, and advanced technologies.” Ofir said work had begun on two sections of the overall scheme, without giving details. The other section could be a military road started last year further north along the Jordan valley, around the villages of Bardala and Kardala. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said: “The new barrier will strengthen settlement along the border, significantly reduce arms smuggling into the hands of terrorists in Judea and Samaria, and will deal a severe blow to the efforts of Iran and its proxies to establish an eastern front against the state of Israel.” According to the Times of Israel, citing Israel Defense Forces sources, the initial project around Atouf was conceived after a single security incident: the killing in August 2024 of a 23-year-old Israeli, Yonatan Deutsch, in a drive-by shooting by Palestinian militants along Route 90, which runs along the Jordan valley floor. Etkes said there had been more Palestinian militant attacks in other areas of the West Bank. What distinguished the area around Atouf was not the security risk but the quality of its farmland, he added. He said: “They are using this incident as a pretext in order to take over tens of thousands of dunams of land, and to push Palestinian communities further out of the Jordan valley.”

EU to freeze €210bn in Russian assets indefinitely

The EU has agreed to indefinitely freeze Russia’s sovereign assets in the bloc, as Moscow stepped up its threats to retaliate against Euroclear, the keeper of most of the Kremlin’s immobilised money. The decision by the EU to use emergency powers to immobilise €210bn (£185bn) of Russia’s central bank’s assets marks a significant step towards using the cash to aid Ukraine’s defence. European Council president António Costa confirmed on Friday that EU leaders had delivered on a commitment, made in October, to “keep Russian assets immobilised until Russia ends its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates for the damage caused”. Before this step, EU sanctions underpinning the frozen assets needed to be renewed every six months – creating potential for a Kremlin-friendly government, such as Hungary, to veto the move. The decision came hours after Russia’s central bank said it was filing a lawsuit against Euroclear, the Brussels central securities depository that holds these assets. The organisation, once a little-known part of international financial plumbing that is now in the spotlight, has no say on how the frozen funds are used. The lawsuit, being filed in a Moscow court, claims Euroclear’s “illegal actions” had caused “damage” to the central bank’s ability to manage funds and securities. Euroclear declined to comment, but a spokesperson said it was “currently fighting more than 100 legal claims in Russia”. Last week, the European Commission proposed a €90bn (£79bn) loan for Ukraine, secured against Russian assets immobilised in the EU since its full-scale invasion. But the plan has been blocked by Belgium, which fears a cascade of lawsuits from Moscow and the seizure of Belgian assets in the country. Belgium’s prime minister Bart De Wever met Keir Starmer in Downing Street on Friday for long-planned talks on the EU-UK reset, migration and the Russian assets. De Wever’s spokesperson said they had discussed “the possible use of the value of immobilised Russian sovereign assets” and “agreed to continue to work closely to make progress on this complex issue”. A Downing Street spokesperson issued a near-identical statement, saying: “It was clear, they agreed, that keeping up the economic pressure on Russia and putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position would remain the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace.” The meeting comes ahead of an EU summit next week, when leaders have promised decisions on funding Ukraine in 2026-27, amid warnings that Kyiv will run out of money next spring to fund its defence and pay doctors and teachers. EU officials believe the proposed €90bn loan will meet two-thirds of Ukraine’s financial needs for the next two years, and expect Kyiv’s other “international partners” to provide the rest. The Belgian government says it must have guarantees from EU partners that it will not be on the hook for a multibillion-euro bill if it is sued by Russia. De Wever has previously described the proposal as “fundamentally wrong” and argued it would violate international law and endanger the stability of the euro currency. In a sign of tensions around the plan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Malta and Italy said only EU leaders should decide on use of the immobilised assets. In a statement announcing support for the emergency powers clause to freeze the funds indefinitely on Friday, they urged EU countries “to continue exploring and discussing alternative options in line with EU and international law”. Belgium argues the EU should borrow money on capital markets to fund Ukraine, secured against unallocated funds (headroom) in the EU budget. But many member states are loath to take out more common debt. Germany, usually a champion of economic orthodoxy, sees the frozen assets plan as the best option and has pledged to provide one-quarter (€50bn) of needed guarantees for Belgium. EU officials argue that the legal risk to Euroclear, and therefore Belgium, would be limited. Under the complex scheme, the EU would borrow cash from Euroclear, then loan the funds to Ukraine, while Russia remains the legal owner of the assets. Ukraine would only repay the money if and when it received reparations from Moscow for colossal damage inflicted during the war. The UK, which hosts €27bn (£23bn) of frozen Russian assets, supports the idea and expects some, but not all, G7 countries to move forward with a similar plan, following a decision on the Euroclear-held assets. US participation in the scheme is less certain, although it holds only a modest €4bn (£3.5bn) in immobilised assets.

US treasury lifts sanctions on Brazilian judge who presided over Bolsonaro case

The US Department of the Treasury has lifted sanctions imposed on the Brazilian supreme court justice who oversaw the conviction of the former president Jair Bolsonaro. Justice Alexandre de Moraes had been under Global Magnitsky sanctions, which target individuals accused of human rights abuses, since July. His wife Viviane Barci de Moraes – who was added the sanctions list in September – was also removed from the register on Friday. The move had been repeatedly requested by Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in negotiations with Donald Trump to roll back the 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports. The decision is a major setback for Bolsonaro and his congressman son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who left his post in Brazil to lobby in Washington for punitive measures over what he called a “persecution” of his father. Trump imposed the punishment shortly after imposing tariffs on Brazil, justifying it as a response to what he claimed was a “witch-hunt” against Bolsonaro. Eduardo Bolsonaro has alleged that he influenced Trump’s decision. Moraes presided over the trial hearing in September when Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting to overturn Brazil’s 2022 election. Days later, the Magnitsky sanctions were extended to the justice’s wife. Bolsonaro’s supporters had hoped for further retaliation against Brazil, but what followed was an unexpected rapprochement between Trump and Lula. The US president first praised his Brazilian counterpart during the UN general assembly; the two then exchanged calls, held their first in-person meeting, and, in November, Trump removed most of the tariffs. With the sanctions lifted from Moraes and his wife, Eduardo Bolsonaro posted on social media that he “received with regret” the news, while thanking Trump “for the support demonstrated throughout this process and for the attention he gave to the serious crisis of freedoms affecting Brazil”. He added that he will continue “working firmly and resolutely to find a path that allows for the liberation of our country, for as long as necessary and despite adverse circumstances. May God bless America, and may He have mercy on the Brazilian people.” Bolsonaro is already serving his sentence in a special cell at the Federal Police headquarters in Brasília. This week, the lower house approved a law that could reduce his time in a closed regime to just over two years. The bill – which still falls short of the full amnesty sought by the far-right leader and his sons – must still pass the senate, where there is also apparent support, before going to Lula; any veto by him would likely be overturned.

Danish intelligence accuses US of using economic power to ‘assert its will’ over allies

Danish intelligence services have accused the US of using its economic power to “assert its will” and threatening military force against its allies. The comments, made in its annual assessment released this week, mark the first time that the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS) has listed the US as a threat to the country. Denmark, the report warns, is “facing more and more serious threats and security policy challenges than in many years”. The report said that the US is “now using its economic and technological strength as a means of power, including against allies and partners”. Competition between superpowers Russia, China and the US, it said, is “increasingly taking place in the Arctic”, which is growing in strategic importance amid increasing tensions between Russia and the west. This, it notes, poses a specific threat to Denmark, which used to rule Greenland as a colony and continues to control its foreign and security policy. “The increased great power competition in the Arctic has significantly increased international attention to the region,” it said. “This applies in particular to the United States’ increasing interest in Greenland and its importance to US national security.” It adds: “At the same time, the attention increases the threat from espionage, including cyber espionage, and attempts to further influence all parts of the kingdom of Denmark.” Greenland remains part of the Danish commonwealth or kingdom. Last week, the new US National Security Strategy policy document, with an introduction signed by Trump, claimed that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” within the next two decades as a result of migration and EU integration, arguing that the US must “cultivate resistance” within the continent to “Europe’s current trajectory”. It came at a time of already heightened tension between the US and Denmark after Trump’s repeated assertions over the past year that he wants to take control of Greenland. Earlier this year, vice-president JD Vance visited US military base Pituffik and accused Denmark of having “not done a good job” in Greenland. In August, an alleged US influence campaign in Greenland resulted in Denmark summoning the US charge d’affaires. In a damning symbol of the changed dynamic between Denmark and the US, traditionally its largest and most important ally, it was recently revealed that Copenhagen had established a “night watch” tasked with monitoring Trump’s unpredictable words and actions while Denmark sleeps. Despite the report’s warnings, the head of the DDIS, Thomas Ahrenkiel, said that the US was still Denmark’s closest ally. “The United States has been and continues to be the guarantor of Europe’s security through its involvement in the transatlantic alliance, its presence in Europe and through the American nuclear umbrella,” he told broadcaster DR. “The United States is leveraging economic power, including threats of high tariffs, to assert its will, and the possibility of employing military force – even against allies – is no longer ruled out,” the report said. It also warns of the uncertainty around the role of the US as a “guarantor of European security”, which it said will increase Russia’s “willingness to intensify its hybrid attacks against Nato”. It adds: “The military threat from Russia to Nato will increase, even though there is currently no threat of a regular military attack against the kingdom of Denmark.”

The importance of Europe in curbing Russia’s might | Letters

I wholly support the plea to Europe by Timothy Garton Ash (Only Europe can save Ukraine from Putin and Trump – but will it?, 6 December). One aspect he did not mention was the strategic nuclear balance. Since the late 1940s, responsibility for deterrence has always lain with the Pentagon and has succeeded in keeping the peace, though at times a very fragile version of it. The recent US statement on defence makes it clear that Europe is no longer seen as a priority by the Trump administration, the danger now being that doubt is crucially being raised as to the credibility of Nato’s deterrent. Without certainty of a reaction in kind, Russia, under its ambitious and risk-taking president, might be tempted to chance its arm in what almost looks like a ceding of Europe by the US into a Russian “sphere of influence”. If Vladimir Putin triumphs in Ukraine, the future of the Baltic states will probably move up Putin’s agenda – and after that, who knows? In the 1930s, Europe ignored a clear existential threat, and millions paid for it. Europe has to realise that its superior economic and military potential has to be mobilised to secure not just the future of Ukraine, but the stability of Europe. Bill Jones Honorary professor of political studies, Liverpool Hope University • The suggestion by Timothy Garton Ash that Belgium is acting egotistically in resisting the seizure of Russian assets is somewhat harsh. The potential financial liability in the unlikely event of an adverse international legal ruling at some future date would virtually bankrupt the country. Surely it is the resistance of the other EU countries in sharing this liability that is the problem. Robin Wilson London • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Belgian PM meets Starmer in London as debate continues on using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine – as it happened

The Guardian’s live coverage of the day’s top stories from Europe is coming to a close. Here are today’s key events: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Berlin on Monday for talks on bilateral relations and peace negotiations over the war. Zelenskyy and Germany’s Friederich Merz will be joined by “many European heads of state and government” and top representatives of the EU and Nato for further discussions, its statement said. Ukraine would be slated to join the European Union by 1 January 2027 under a peace proposal being discussed as part of US-mediated negotiations to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Zelenskyy has been under immense pressure from Donald Trump to sign up to the US peace plan, but questions remain about the fairness of the proposals and whether Russia is actually interested in peace. Belgium’s prime minister Bart De Wever is at 10 Downing Street for bilateral talks with UK prime minister, Keir Starmer. The pair are talking migration, security and economy, among other things, but obviously they will also touch upon the ongoing debate about the use of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine … The plan has been blocked by Belgium, which hosts €185bn of the immobilised assets at the Euroclear central securities depository in Brussels. The Belgian government says it must have guarantees from EU partners that it will not be on the hook for a multi-billion euro bill if it is successfully sued by Russia. De Wever has described the idea as “fundamentally wrong” and argued it would violate international law and endanger the stability of the euro currency. German chancellor Merz said he “supported” the widely expected softening of the 2035 ban on new petrol or diesel cars, having advocated strongly for changes to the rules on the end of the combustion engine for months. “The reality is that there will still be millions of combustion engine based cars around the world in 2035, 2040 and 2050,” he said. EU member states have agreed to introduce a €3 customs duty per item on parcels valued under €150. The move, which will apply from July next year, is designed to curb the impact of cheap goods coming in from China via online platforms such as Temu and Shein.

Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi arrested in Iran

There are fears for the wellbeing of the 2023 Nobel peace prize winner, Narges Mohammadi, after she was detained by Iranian security forces at a memorial ceremony for a human rights lawyer in the eastern city of Mashhad. Mohammadi, 53, who was granted temporary leave from prison on medical grounds in December 2024, was newly detained along with several other activists at the memorial for Khosro Alikordi, who was found dead in his office last week. Mohammadi’s brother Mehdi, who was present at the ceremony, confirmed her arrest, her foundation said. Speaking to the Guardian, a member of Mohammadi’s team who requested anonymity said: “Her arrest earlier today appears directly linked to her public remarks in Mashhad following Khosro Alikordi’s suspicious death. At his memorial, human rights activists gathered to protest against what they view as a suspicious and potentially state-linked killing.” Officials in Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province said Alikordi suffered a heart attack, but a tightening security crackdown that coincided with his death has raised questions about its circumstances. More than 80 lawyers have signed a statement demanding more information. “Alikordi was a prominent figure among Iran’s community of human rights defenders,” the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said on Thursday. “Over the past several years, he had been repeatedly arrested, harassed and threatened by security and judicial forces.” Mohammadi’s family members said security and police forces used teargas and violence to disperse people who had gathered for Alikordi’s memorial. Speaking from Paris, Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, told the Guardian he was worried not only for his wife but also for the other rights activists arrested at the same time. Rahmani described the arrest as part of an escalating strategy by the Iranian authorities to suppress dissent. “This is a targeted attack on democracy and the right to freedom of expression,” he said. Mohammadi’s children, Ali and Kiana, said they were also worried for their mother and the other activists. “She had a surgery just a year ago and many others arrested have also been fighting medical conditions,” Ali told the Guardian. “She was arrested two hours ago and we still don’t know where my mother is. “These people don’t belong in the prison.” Footage from the memorial ceremony showed Mohammadi at a microphone, calling out to the crowd and starting a chant in the name of Majidreza Rahnavard, who was publicly hanged by the Iranian authorities in 2022. There was no immediate comment from Iran over its detention of Mohammadi and it was not clear whether authorities would return her to prison to serve the rest of her term. Supporters had cautioned for months she was at risk of being put back in jail. Hasan Hosseini, the city governor of Mashhad, said prosecutors ordered security officials to temporarily detain some participants at the ceremony over the chanting of “norm-breaking” slogans, Iranian state television reported. Hosseini described the detentions as preventive to protect those there from others in the crowd. Before her release last December, Mohammadi had been imprisoned since November 2021 for convictions relating to her campaign against capital punishment and the obligation for women in Iran to wear the hijab. Her supporters say she suffered multiple heart attacks in prison before undergoing emergency surgery in 2022. Late last year, her lawyer said doctors had found a bone lesion they feared could be cancerous and which was later removed. “Her health could deteriorate very quickly under these conditions,” Rahmani said. “The repression inside the mosque today was carried out with extreme brutality. Teargas was fired, and Narges and other activists were beaten even though they have serious health issues.” Mohammadi’s sentence was supposed to be suspended for three weeks when she was released last year, but her time out of prison lengthened, possibly because of pressure from activists and western powers. She remained free even during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. She kept up her activism with public protests and international media appearances, including demonstrating at one point in front of Evin prison, the notorious facility in Tehran where she was held. Chirinne Ardakani, Mohammadi’s Paris-based lawyer, said: “I am calling for the immediate release of my client, as well as of all the human rights activists who have been arbitrarily detained alongside her. I also reiterate my client’s demand that truth and justice be established regarding the suspicious circumstances surrounding Alikordi’s death, for which we have reason to believe the state bears responsibility.” Mohammadi’s family said they did not know in whose custody she was being held, with Ali adding: “My mother could be in the custody of the Revolutionary Guards or the security forces or police. We don’t know anything.” Rahmani said: “We urge the western media to continue following events in Iran and to please keep reporting.” Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report