Norway and Sweden highlight Iranian Peace Prize winner

Dec 10, 2009, 11:58 GMT

Oslo/Stockholm - Norway and Sweden expressed concern over the treatment by Iranian authorities of 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi in a statement Thursday shortly before this year's prize was set to be presented.

'Ebadi is one of many courageous people who use peaceful means to try to increase respect for human rights in Iran,' Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store and his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt said in a joint statement.

The two ministers said they reacted 'very strongly to the treatment' Ebadi was subjected to, and although her peace medal and diploma have been returned to her, 'her situation continues to be serious.'

Tehran has earlier said the medal was confiscated as part of an ongoing tax evasion case.

The peace prize is one of the awards endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. The prizes are presented on December 10, marking the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

The peace prize is presented in Oslo while awards for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and economics are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden.

Ebadi was awarded the peace prize for 'her efforts for democracy and human rights, especially the rights of women and children, in Iran and the Muslim world in general.'