02/03/2020
Open letter to:
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
Re: Coronavirus outbreak among prisoners in Iran
A catastrophic situation is about to arise in prisons in Iran. We urge you to take action and pressurise the government in Iran to stop a human tragedy.
As the Coronavirus death toll surges in the world and most countries are introducing preventive and infection-control measures, the regime in Iran is covering up the rising number of those who have been infected by the Coronavirus, and the number of people who have already lost their lives. People in Iran who already cannot afford to pay for basic and essential medicines are left on their own to suffer and die. The situation is even worse in prisons in Iran. Thousands of prisoners who are already kept in the most horrendous living conditions are about to become victims of the regime’s lack of responsibility in responding to Coronavirus. The prisoners reported a lack of basic sanitizers and medicines in prisons. The authorities have not taken any action to protect the prisoners.
According to reports, one prisoner died in the Evin prison in Tehran after he had suffered from Coronavirus symptoms. In another case, a 44-year-old male prisoner called Hamidreza, died from flu-like symptoms of the mysterious Coronavirus in the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh). Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian who is detained in Evin Prison in Iran is suspected to have Coronavirus. Her husband Ratcliffe said that the authorities in Evin Prison have refused to test Nazanin for the virus.
According to reports received from Iran, prisoners and their families are extremely concerned about the outbreak of Coronavirus in prisons. In particular, the conditions of prisons such as Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh), Qarchak Prison, Dizelabad in the city of Kermanshah, Adelabad in the city of Shiraz, are extremely concerning. Please see the information about Qarchak prison and Fashafuyeh prison at the end of this letter. These prisons mainly hold non-political prisoners who are arrested for murder or drug-related offenses, and are known for their appalling living conditions including being overcrowded. The prisoners are held in the most unhygienic condition where there is no running water or access to cleaning products; where the prisoners are deprived of the basic medical attention and common colds and infections are untreated and develop into more serious conditions; where prisoners with dangerous and contagious diseases are held with the rest of the prisoners without being treated. In prisons such as Qarchak prison, there are hundreds of children who are kept with their mothers in prison in the most dangerous and deprived conditions. The outbreak of Coronavirus in such environments is a human tragedy beyond imagination.
In recent years the regime has started to transfer political prisoners to the non-political prisoners’ wards to exert more pressure on them and to expose them to life-threatening diseases. In the protests of November 2019 more than 8000 people were arrested and many of them were transferred to the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh), which was already overcrowded and had unspeakable conditions. Some of these arrestees were shot and injured by the security forces in the protest and they were taken to prison without being treated. The outbreak of the Coronavirus in such prison would be fatal.
Following the outbreak of Coronavirus, families of political prisoners have written to the authorities to demand the release or grant leave to prisoners in order to keep their loved ones safe from being infected by Coronavirus. Families reported that in some cases authorities have asked for a large amount of bail money in exchange for a temporary release of political prisoners. The majority of these families are already struggling to pay for their basic needs cannot afford to pay the bail money.
The UN’s Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners indicates that: “Prisoners shall have access to the health services available in the country without discrimination on the grounds of their legal situation.” Moreover, The UN’s Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners recommend that “At every institution, there shall be available the services of at least one qualified medical officer who should have some knowledge of psychiatry. The medical services should be organized in close relationship to the general health administration of the community or nation.”
The World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council, the European Union,
the European Parliament, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and the rest of the international community have a duty, and a crucial role in stopping a potentially catastrophic situation in prisons in Iran.
We urge you to take immediate action and to pressurise the government in Iran to:
- Provide prisoners with medical treatment; to put in place protective measure against Coronavirus in all prisons immediately
- Grant immediate and unconditional leave to the political prisoners
- Allow the visit of a team consisting of the World Health Organisation and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran to visit and assess the condition of the following prisons: Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh), Qarchak Prison, Dizelabad in the city of Kermanshah, Adelabad in the city of Shiraz, Evin prison in Tehran, Gohardasht Prison
Shiva Mahbobi, spokesperson for the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI)
Shahla Daneshfar, spokesperson for Free Them Now! Campaign to Free Jailed Workers in Iran
Hasan Salehi, spokesperson for the International Committee against Execution (ICAE)
Background information about the condition of two prisons in Iran:
The condition of Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary
The Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary (in Persian: ندامتگاه مرکزی تهران بزرگ) is a large prison located in approximately 32 km south of Tehran. This prison is also known as ‘Fashafuyeh’ and was built in 2012 and is located between the city of Tehran and Qom. This prison is infamous for its inhumane conditions and for physically and psychologically torturing prisoners, being overcrowded, unsanitary living spaces, intolerable heat with severely limited water resources and depriving prisoners from essential medical care.
Mr. Nader Fatourehchi, an Iranian journalist who was detained in the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, described the condition of this prison as: “More than 80 percent of the prisoners in quarantine are homeless drug addicts who are too weak to stand on their feet. They should be hospitalized, not imprisoned. The stench smell from body odour and infected wounds is unimaginable and what makes it worse is the vomit left by drug addicts who don’t have the strength to go to the toilet”. Another political prisoner stated that they did not have a clean and drinkable water for most of the day, and water for the prisoners was saved in dirty garbage cans and the detention centre’s walls are infested with bed-bugs.
The Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary has been used to hold prisoners for drug offences, crime and murder, and not for political prisoners. However, in recent years, political prisoners are being transferred to this prison in order to physically and psychologically torturing them and placing them in the same prison cells with violent criminals and dangerous prisoners who committed multiple murder. This is a life-threatening situation for these political prisoners as there are chances they could be killed by these violent criminals. One such example is the case of Mr. Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali, a political prisoner who was murdered in this prison. Soheil Arabi, a well-known blogger, was transferred to this prison and was kept with non-political prisoners who were suffering from contagious diseases. The prison authorities, who are mainly managed by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), intentionally place the political prisoners in a dangerous living condition so they could die from contagious diseases, or being murdered by dangerous non-political prisoners in this prison. The authorities then simply report that the political prisoner died of natural causes, or in a personal fight with prisoners, while serving their time in prison.
The condition of Qarchak Prison
Qarchak prison or Gharchak prison (in Persian:قرچک) is in the city of Varamin 35 kilometres from central Tehran. This prison is the largest and the most notorious women prison, which holds non-political prisoners, who were arrested for crimes including murder, theft, and drugs.
In recent years, political prisoners were sent to Qarchak prison to exert further pressure on them. Many female political prisoners were transferred to this prison and were placed in the most inhuman condition to deliberately put their lives in danger. Some of these prisoners includes Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee and Atena Dayemi, Sepideh Gholian, Gonabadi Sufis, Monireh Arabshahi and many more.
Qarchak prison is infamous for its inhuman conditions and the brutal treatment of the prisoners. These conditions includes unsanitary living conditions, shortage of safe drinking water, which resulted in many prisoners suffer from kidney and intestinal illness, denial of medical care, denial of legal representation, poor food quality and quantity and physical and psychological torture, including rape.
The facility that is now known as Qarchak prison was originally built as an animal husbandry. The IRGC then decided to remove the animals, convert the facility into a prison and transfer women prisoners to this prison. According to the prisoners, the transition from animal husbandry to prison was not done based on any regulations or standards and the IRGC did not build proper facilities for this prison. Instead, the authorities spend money on installing and creating security facilities. This prison consists of 11 wards, all of them vastly overcrowded. There are many children who live with their mother in the most inhuman condition in this prison. These children are deprived of their basic human rights including safe drinking water, having an adequate food, and they suffer from various psychological and physical illnesses. Some of these children are born in this prison.
The quarantine section of this prison is used to hold new prisoners. However, the IRGC locks political prisoners, who are transferred to Qarchak prison, in the quarantine for several weeks or even months, in order to torture and punishment them. The quarantine is the most overcrowded section of the prison and is considered as very dangerous due to its condition. In the quarantine, the prisoners who suffer from contagious diseases, such as AIDS or Hepatitis, are kept with other prisoners.
For more information contact:
Shiva Mahbobi, spokesperson for the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI)
Shahla Daneshfar- Free Them Now! Campaign to Free Jailed Workers in Iran
+44(0)7779898968
Hasan Salehi, spokesperson for the International Committee against Execution (ICAE)