Iranian rights activist Maryam Akbari Monfared, who has spent 13 years in prison for protesting the execution of her two siblings, faces new charges of "propaganda against the system."

The watchdog Iran Human Rights quoted a source as saying Monfared was to have appeared in court on July 16 but refused as her lawyer had not been informed of the charges.

Hassan Jafari, Monfared’s husband, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that the content of the new case is still unknown.

Monfared was arrested on December 2009 and was forcibly disappeared for five months.

She was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran in May 2010, which condemned her for “acting against national security” and "enmity against God."

Jafari says a judge convicted his wife in a four-minute trial because of her family, who were members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO). Three of her siblings were executed by the state in 1988, while a fourth died while being tortured in 1985.

Monfared has been in prison since her conviction without being granted any leave. She reportedly has been suffering health problems.

Jafari says that the Ministry of Intelligence has stopped any early or temporary release of his wife, even though a bail deposit has been posted.

In 2015, after the release of audio from Ayatollah Montazeri, then the country's deputy leader, regarding the mass killing of prisoners, including her siblings, Monfared filed a lawsuit with the Tehran Prosecutor's Office.

Jila Bani Yaqoub, a journalist who was in the women's ward of Evin prison with Maryam Akbari Monfared, said in an interview with Radio Farda that after Monfared's complaint and lawsuit, prison officials “specifically told her that they will not let her go on leave, and they have stuck to this."

With reporting and writing by Ardeshir Tayebi