Please take a moment to send a message to the regime in Iran to demand the release of political prisoners. These prisoners are in a grave danger.
Send your message to the followin. Please use #CoronaIranPrison
Hassan Rouhani Email: media@rouhani.ir Twitter: @HassanRouhani
Ali Khamenei Email: info_leader@leader.ir Twitter: @khamenei_ir
Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
Email: iran@un.int
Why do we need your help? Please read the following and feel free to share it with your friends.
Any question? Please feel free to contact shiva.mahbobi@gmail.com , +447572356661
Open letter to: International community. Human rights organisations, labour unions and concerned individual
Thousands of people are infected by Coronavirus and hundreds died in different cities across Iran. According to the Islamic regime’s statement, an Iranian dies every ten minutes. The statistic published by the Islamic government in Iran doesn’t reflect the reality and catastrophe that has been unfolding in Iran. There is no preventive measure to contain Coronavirus in Iran, and if there is, it is too little too late. While the Islamic regimes officials pocket billions, and still enjoy their luxurious life, ordinary people are suffering from sheer poverty and lack of medical care, and hospitals are in dire need of the most basic equipment.
The Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent tragedies in Iran go much further than in any other country. In prisons, the numbers of infected prisoners are on the rapid rise and the prisoners are in an outmost vulnerable condition in Iran. As mentioned in the previous letter (attached) the condition of prisons in Iran is horrendous. The Islamic regime in Iran has not taken any actions to keep the prisoners safe. The officials announced that they granted some temporary release to some prisoners. Following the announcement, several thousand mainly non-political prisoners were temporarily released. However, it seems the regime has intentionally denied the political prisoners the same rights to temporary release. According to the systematic and deliberate attempt that has been set by the Islamic regime to exterminate political prisoners, it is better if the political prisoners die of Coronavirus and other illnesses in prison than being executed which could cause an international outcry and controversy.
According to the report received from Iran, families of political prisoners have been continuously asking the government to release their loved ones. On 10 March 2020, Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, asked the government in Iran to release all political prisoners from its overcrowded and disease-ridden jails. But the Islamic regime has ignored this call. More than 100 political prisoners in Evin prison and the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh prison) have started a hunger strike demanding the release of political prisoners in the face of Coronavirus.Nevertheless, it seems that the government in Iran has once again tried to intentionally keep the political prisoners in a dangerous condition.
The regime in Iran has persistently refused to release political prisoners and in particular, they refuse to release well-known political prisoners. These prisoners include Soheil Arabi, a well know jailed activist, who is held in the notorious Fashafuye prison while suffers from various infections, being deprived of medical attention and his cellmate tested positive for Coronavirus. He has been on a hunger strike and as a punishment for his strike; he was recently transferred to a ward with the much harsher condition. Other include Arash Sadeghi, a jailed student activist who is suffering from cancer, Atena Daemi children rights activist, Jafar Azimzadeh labour rights activists, Golrokh Iraee women’s rights activist, who is held in the notorious Qarchak prison, Narges Mohamadi women’s rights activist, Saeed Shirzad children rights activists, and Mohammad Habibi, a teachers activist. All of these prisoners are suffering from life-threatening illnesses. It is clear that the regime is deliberately preventing these prisoners from being released. This is consistent with the regime’s method that has been practiced by the Islamic regime in the last few years. These well-known political prisoners are held in dangerous conditions so they could die and then regime could claim they died of Coronavirus or ‘natural causes’.
The only way to force the regime to release all political prisoners is by exerting an urgent and much needed international pressure.
According to the report from Iran, the regime, not only denies political prisoners a temporary release, they have started to summon numbers of rights activists to prison while Coronavirus crisis is unfolding. These activists are summoned to prison to carry out their sentences while the majority of people in Iran are quarantine or self-isolating to protect themselves from contracting the virus. These activists include four women rights activists from the organization of ‘Nedaye Zanan Iran’ (The Voice of Women in Iran), labour activist Sepideh Gholian, more than 30 followers of Baha’i faith, several writers, women’s rights activist, and many more. It is important to note that those, who have recently been summoned to prison, are mainly well-known activists. It is not coincident that the regime chose this period, when the Coronavirus contraction and death are on the rapid rise, to summon these well-known activists. The Islamic regime knows the Coronavirus outbreak is dangerous, knows the condition of prisons is even more dangerous, but still chose to summon these prisoners to prison now.
I would like to urge you to take urgent action to pressurise the Islamic regime in Iran to release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally. The lives of thousands of political prisoners are in great danger. There is a significant threat that the Islamic regime, using the opportunity created by the coronavirus pandemic, attempts to carry out political prisoners cleansing in Iran.
Your immediate and urgent action to stop this is more important than ever now. Please act soon and pressure the Islamic regime to stop killing of all political prisoners in Iran.
(Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CF
Yours sincerely
Shiva Mahbobi
This letter was sent to the following:
Elisabeth TICHY-FISSLBERGER, President of the UN Human Rights Council
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation
Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran
Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union
David Maria, President of the European Parliament
