Families of political prisoners concerned about the spread of coronavirus in prisons

With the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran, a group of families of political prisoners have called for the release or furlough of prisoners. Nasrin Sotoudeh's husband has written that the lives of prisoners are in grave danger due to the high possibility of the virus entering the prison.

A group of families of political prisoners have written a letter to Ebrahim Raisi, the head of Iran's judiciary, asking him to agree to the release or furlough of prisoners until the end of the crisis related to the spread of the coronavirus in the country.

The families of political prisoners wrote in their letter: "We, a group of families of political prisoners, demand the release or at least acceptable leave of the prisoners until the end of the crisis, in order to prevent a human catastrophe."

According to ISNA, the families of Mahmoud Beheshti Langroudi, Esmaeil Abdi, Mohammad Habibi, Narges Mohammadi, Amirsalar Davoudi, Farhad Meysami, Roveen Atofat, Jafar Azimzadeh, Shahnaz Akmali, Majid Azarpi, Athena Daemi, Sam Rajabi, Morad Tahbaz, Niloufar Bayani, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Hooman Jokar, Taher Ghadirian, Neda Naji, Mehrdad Mohammadnejad, Mohammad Abolhasani, Peyman Koushk Baghi, Aras Amiri, Jafar Fazel, and Alireza Golipour have signed this letter.

Yesterday, Sediqeh Malikifar, the wife of Hashem Khastar, a political prisoner in Mashhad, announced that the families of 14 political prisoners wrote a letter to the head of the judiciary, calling for the prisoners to be immediately saved from the "danger of the coronavirus" by releasing them or granting them leave.

These 14 political prisoners are the ones who recently wrote an open letter calling for Ayatollah Khamenei’s resignation. They are currently in prisons in Mashhad, Tehran, and Kashan. The authors of the letter have blamed the judiciary for the consequences of “the spread of this dangerous disease among prisoners.”

On the other hand, Reza Khandan, Nasrin Sotoudeh's husband, wrote in a short post on Facebook: "The lives of prisoners are in grave danger due to the spread of the coronavirus and the high probability of the virus entering the prison."

Mr. Khandan believes that the judiciary is responsible for anything that happens in this regard. Especially since political prisoners are innocent and there is no reason to keep them in prison. They should all be released.

Nasrin Sotoudeh's husband also says: "Non-political prisoners should be released on bail and bail as much as possible until the disease is contained and sufficient measures are implemented to control the entry of people infected with the virus into the prison."

Source: DW