Amnesty International reports 96 cases of deliberate killing of prisoners in Iran

In a new investigative report, Amnesty International has documented nearly one hundred cases of the deliberate killing of sick prisoners in Iranian prisons.

This detailed report, titled "In Death's Waiting Room: Deaths Due to Deprivation of Medical Care in Iranian Prisons," was published on Tuesday, April 13.

This investigative report explains in great detail how prison authorities in the Islamic Republic have contributed to or are the primary cause of the deaths of prisoners by preventing or delaying the emergency transfer of prisoners to hospital.

According to this documentary report, 64 of the 96 prisoners whose reports Amnesty International reviewed died inside prison.

Amnesty International writes in this regard that "many of these died in custody, meaning they were not even given basic medical care in their final hours. Others died while being cared for in prison infirmaries with basic equipment."

According to the report, 26 prisoners also died during transfer to the hospital or shortly after admission, following deliberate and fatal delays by medical staff or prison officials.

Amnesty International reported: “In at least six cases, critically ill prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement, punishment cells or quarantine. Of these, four died in solitary confinement, while the remaining two were eventually granted permission to be taken to hospital, but only when it was too late; they too died either during the transfer to hospital or shortly after admission.”

In the vast majority of recorded cases, the deceased prisoners were young or middle-aged: 23 were between 19 and 39 years old and 26 were between 40 and 59 years old.

An Amnesty International investigative report cited “systematic impunity for human rights violators in Iran” as one of the factors that allows prison authorities to continue the deadly practice of depriving prisoners of medical care.

Amnesty International has called this judicial immunity a crisis and added: “Given this situation, Amnesty International once again emphasizes the urgent need for the establishment of an international mechanism by the UN Human Rights Council to collect, analyze and preserve evidence and documents related to the most serious international crimes committed in Iran, with the aim of facilitating fair criminal proceedings in the future.” Earlier, in September of last year, following the publication of videos of prison guards treating prisoners in Iran, Amnesty International had “reiterated its call for the establishment of an accountability and investigative mechanism by the UN Human Rights Council” to address this issue, given the continued refusal of the Islamic Republic authorities to investigate the matter.

In a new Amnesty International report, Diana Al-Tahawi, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Office of the organization, emphasized: “Until effective, thorough, transparent, impartial and independent investigations are carried out to determine the circumstances leading to the deaths of prisoners and identify those involved in these deaths, the shadow of death will continue to hang heavy over Iran’s sick prisoners.”

In part of this investigative report, statistics on 96 prisoners are presented by province, based on which the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Tehran, Sistan and Baluchestan, and Karaj are at the top of the list with 28, 16, 15, and 12 prisoners who have surrendered their lives, respectively.

Of these 96 recorded deaths, 65 prisoners have died in the past five years alone, which, even if it is due to greater access to information in recent years, “is still a warning sign that serious violations of the right to life and health have not subsided throughout Iran’s prisons and continue unabated, facilitated by the prevailing climate of impunity for violators of prisoners’ rights.”

According to the report, of the 96 recorded deaths, Amnesty International has accessed documents on the legal status of 69 prisoners, indicating that at least 57 of them were serving sentences and 12 of the prisoners who died were in pre-trial detention.

Also, of the total of 96 prisoners whose deaths were recorded, "the cases of 20 of them were of a political nature with national security charges"; a charge that is frequently raised in the Islamic Republic against civil activists, human rights defenders, writers, political opponents, and members of ethnic minorities.

According to this investigative report, the cases of the other 76 prisoners who surrendered their lives were "non-political in nature."

Documenting all of these cases, and in order to prevent further avoidable deaths resulting from the denial of vital medical care, Amnesty International has called on the authorities of the Islamic Republic to "require, both in law and in practice, that prisoners with emergency conditions be immediately transferred to medical facilities outside prison until structural reforms are implemented in prison health facilities."

Amnesty International also called on the Islamic Republic authorities to “rectify the deeply flawed provisions of the Prisons Organization’s executive regulations that give prison administrators and prosecutorial officials the authority to ignore medical advice and make the final decision on sending prisoners for treatment outside prison.”

Source: Radio Farda