Giti Pourafzal, Signatory of Letter Calling for Khamenei’s Resignation, Released from Prison on Furlough

The head of Iran’s Prison Organization announced on Sunday, July 25, that Giti Pourafzal had been granted furlough.

Giti Pourafzal is a lawyer and one of the signatories of a letter calling for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s resignation.

Ramina Hallforosh, the granddaughter of Ms. Pourafzal, had previously reported that her grandmother contracted coronavirus due to “prolonged mismanagement, lack of vaccination, and simultaneous visits from patients infected with coronavirus.”

Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, Giti Pourafzal’s lawyer, confirmed in a Twitter message that his client had been released on furlough and stated that Ms. Pourafzal had deposited 200 million tomans as bail.

Mr. Aghasi also described the health conditions of some prisoners in Evin as unfavorable in his tweet.

Mohammad Mehdi Haj Mohammadi, head of the Prison Organization, neither confirmed nor denied reports of Ms. Pourafzal contracting coronavirus, but stated in a tweet that the vaccination process had begun in prisons and that “God willing, in the coming days all inmates in the country’s prisons will receive the first dose of vaccine.”

A large portion of Iran’s population remains unvaccinated, and activists have long warned about conditions in Iranian prisons, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: Voice of America