An Iranian court sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to a six-year prison term, her lawyer told AFP on Sunday.

"She has been sentenced to six years in prison for gathering and collusion to commit crimes," lawyer Mostafa Nili said, adding that she had also received a two-year ban on leaving the country.

Mohammadi was also handed a one-and-a-half-year prison sentence for propaganda activities and is to be exiled for two years to the city of Khosf in the eastern province of South Khorasan, the lawyer stated.

Under Iranian law, jail sentences run concurrently.

Nili expressed hope that due to Mohammadi's health issues, she could be temporarily "released on bail to receive treatment".

He added that the verdict issued was not final and could be appealed.

Over the past quarter-century, Mohammadi, 53, has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her vocal campaigning against Iran's use of capital punishment and the mandatory dress code for women.

Mohammadi has spent much of the past decade behind bars and has not seen her twin children, who live in Paris, since 2015.

In December 2024, she was released on medical grounds, initially for three weeks, due to "her physical condition after the removal of a tumour and a bone graft", according to her lawyer.

However, she ultimately spent much of last year outside of custody, continuing to make statements in spite of her lawyers' fears she could be sent back to prison any time.

On December 12, Mohammadi was arrested in the northeastern city of Mashhad with other activists after speaking at a ceremony honouring a lawyer who had been found dead.

Even behind bars, the Nobel laureate has not been silent, staging protests in the prison yard and going on hunger strikes.

Born in the northwestern city of Zanjan in 1972, Mohammadi studied physics and pursued a career in engineering alongside work as a journalist for several reformist media outlets.

In the 2000s, she joined the Defenders of Human Rights Center set up by 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, an organisation of which Mohammadi remains vice president.

She was jailed from May 2015 to October 2020 for "forming and leading an illegal group", campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty in Iran.

Mohammadi won the peace prize in 2023, primarily for her advocacy against capital punishment. Her children collected the award on her behalf, as she was in prison at the time.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say Iran carries out more executions each year than any other country except China, for which no reliable figures are available.