Iran: Amid heightened risk of COVID-19 in detention facilities, all human rights defenders must be immediately released
Paris-Geneva,
August 13, 2020 – As COVID-19 continues to hit Iran, with a growing number of
infections recently confirmed in places of detention, it is urgent to
immediately and unconditionally release all detained human rights defenders,
the Observatory (FIDH-OMCT) said today.
In
light of the dire situation in detention facilities, where social distancing is
virtually impossible and where sanitary conditions are extremely inadequate,
exposing prisoners to the highly contagious COVID-19, prominent human rights
defender Nasrin Sotoudeh published a letter on August 11, 2020,
announcing that she would go on hunger strike until all political prisoners in the country were released.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer and a major figure in the fight for
human rights in Iran, is currently serving a 38.5-year prison sentence under
fabricated charges. In May 2020, the Tehran Prosecutor ordered to freeze her
bank accounts without justification. Since then, requests for clarification
made by her husband and her lawyer have been left unanswered.
The
Observatory is further concerned about recent reports of additional cases of
COVID-19 in detention facilities. Over the past week, random tests in Ward 8 of
Tehran’s Evin prison showed that 12 prisoners had contracted COVID-19, which
led to their transfer to the prison clinic on August 9. Among them are human
rights defenders Esmaeil Abdi, former Secretary General of the Teachers
Association, Jafar Azimzadeh, Secretary of the Board of Directors of the
Free Union of Iranian Workers, and lawyer Amir Salar Davoodi. The
Observatory is particularly concerned about the health of Messrs. Abdi and
Azimzadeh, as they suffer from asthma and from kidney and heart diseases,
respectively.
The
Observatory also recalls that on July 11, 2020, Ms. Narges Mohammadi,
Spokesperson and Vice-President of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC),
tested positive to COVID-19. Ms. Mohammadi, who has been detained since May 5,
2015, and is currently detained in Zanjan prison, Zanjan Province, had been
displaying COVID-19 symptoms since late June. After her test results, she was
placed in quarantine with 11 other prisoners who also tested positive for
COVID-19. Ms. Mohammadi suffers from several serious health conditions,
including a pulmonary embolism and a neurological disorder, which make her
particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.
The
Observatory recalls that in Iran scores of human rights defenders remain behind
bars as a punishment for their human rights activities. Given the poor
detention conditions in the country’s detention facilities, the high risk of
contracting COVID-19, and the totally unacceptable deprivation of their
liberty, the Observatory reiterates its call on the Iranian authorities to
immediately and unconditionally release them.
The Observatory for the
Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by
FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this
programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights
defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by
international civil society.