Iran’s Government Must Remain Committed to Its Absolute Responsibility in Protecting Prisoners’ Lives Against the Fourth Wave of Coronavirus
The onset of the fourth wave of coronavirus spread in most Iranian cities has intensified concerns about the acceleration of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country’s prisons and among detainees. The Prison Organization of the country, as an institution under the supervision of the judiciary, bears direct responsibility for protecting the physical health of prisoners. Poor sanitary conditions, lack of medical services in the country’s prisons, failure to provide adequate medical services, and endangering prisoners’ physical health are clear examples of illegal conduct by judicial authorities in dealing with prisoners.
Hadi Ghaemi, director of the Human Rights Campaign in Iran, noting that the responsibility for protecting prisoners’ lives rests entirely with the state, said: “Judicial authorities must take urgent and immediate action using all available legal capacities to reduce the high number of incarcerated people in the country’s prisons. These urgent measures, using existing legal capacities, include: broad provision of furloughs, refraining from unjustified and unlawful opposition to conditional release, utilizing prisoners’ skills and expertise outside prisons through the semi-liberty system, accepting retrial requests by referring them to independent branches of the Supreme Court, proper and comprehensive implementation of Article 477 of the Criminal Procedure Code, and similar measures.”
According to Hadi Ghaemi, “Insisting on opposing the proper use of these legal capacities and creating unlawful barriers and restrictions against the legal rights and freedoms of political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, civil activists, and those whose presence in society poses no danger to citizens’ security but rather strengthens public trust and security, demonstrates the political and security perspective of Iran’s judicial authorities toward this category of prisoners.”
The Human Rights Campaign in Iran, expressing serious concerns about the health conditions of detainees in Iranian prisons coinciding with the start of the fourth wave of coronavirus spread in the country, considers the judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as responsible for protecting prisoners’ health, obligated to take urgent and immediate action to prevent further spread of this disease in the country’s prisons. It calls on them to use available legal solutions such as providing furloughs, approving conditional release, and implementing the semi-liberty system for most ordinary and political prisoners on one hand, and ensuring strict observance of standard health measures for dangerous prisoners or convicts in prisons on the other, to create conditions for combating coronavirus spread in prisons and protecting detainees’ health.
Shortage of medical facilities and poor sanitary conditions in many Iranian prisons, the high number of prisoners, and lack of care for coronavirus-infected detainees represent the primary concerns of prisoners and their families in Iranian prisons; closed and unsafe environments against coronavirus that have exposed convicts and detainees to serious health risks. This is while protecting the health of all detainees, whether prisoners or those in custody, is entirely the responsibility of the state, and one cannot solely attribute infection to non-compliance with individual responsibilities. Particularly, since prisoners are not in equal conditions with free citizens to rely solely on their will. Furthermore, the virus-contaminated environment in prisons has also infected prison staff and employees with COVID-19.
On Monday, the 23rd of Farvardin, a group of prisoners from Ward Eight of Evin Prison released a statement about coronavirus spread in the prison, urging Islamic Republic officials to seriously address prison conditions. The statement, referring to the infection of several Evin Prison detainees and staff, stated: “Before witnessing any unfortunate incident in the prison, it is necessary for judicial authorities to take action to improve the dangerous conditions mentioned.” The statement also referred to the re-infection of Behkash Abtahi, a member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, with coronavirus and his transfer to Ward Eight of Evin Prison.
Since the outbreak of widespread coronavirus in Iran and the subsequent increase in the number of infected people in the country’s prisons with this deadly virus, many civil activists and human rights lawyers have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Iranian prisons. Although judicial authorities claimed that many prisoners have been “released” or conditionally freed, a significant portion of political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, civil activists, dual-national prisoners, and foreign nationals continue to be imprisoned. Despite the worsening severity of coronavirus spread in Iranian prisons, trials have not even been held for some of them.
Source: Human Rights Campaign
