{"id":1639,"date":"2020-08-11T18:57:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T18:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1639"},"modified":"2020-08-11T18:57:51","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T18:57:51","slug":"twelve-test-positive-many-others-with-symptoms-none-receiving-proper-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1639","title":{"rendered":"Twelve Test Positive, Many Others with Symptoms, None Receiving Proper Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prominent Labor Activists, Lawyer and Journalist Among Those Falling Ill\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

August 11, 2020\u2014Political prisoners in Iran\u2014including prominent labor leaders\u00a0Esmail Abdi\u00a0and\u00a0Jafar Azimzadeh, the human rights attorney\u00a0Amirsalar Davouudi, the journalist Majid Azarpey and others\u2014are contracting the COVID-19 virus at alarming rates.<\/span><\/p>\n

Twelve prisoners in Evin Prison\u2019s Ward 8 have contracted COVID-19, Monir Abdi, the wife of the teachers\u2019 rights activist\u00a0Esmail Abdi, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on August 10, 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy keeping political prisoners in overcrowded and unsanitary prisons where they are denied medical care and are not separated from ill prisoners, the Iranian authorities are condemning these individuals to COVID-19 and possible death,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI executive director.<\/span><\/p>\n

CHRI calls on the authorities in Iran to immediately release all prisoners testing positive for COVID-19, all those displaying any symptoms, and all those who have come into contact with any ill individuals, for immediate medical care.<\/span><\/p>\n

CHRI further calls on the authorities to release all political prisoners and to ensure that care for all remaining prisoners conforms to pandemic-related guidelines, and urges the international community to demand that Iran complies with international COVID-19 guidelines and incarceration standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prisoners Falling Ill, Not Receiving Treatment<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to Abdi, Azimzadeh, Davoudi and Azarpey, Mona Abdi told CHRI that the Christian convert\u00a0Mohammad Ali Mosibzadeh, the January 2018 protester Saeed Sharifi, and Mohsen Ghanbari had contracted the virus in Evin\u2019s Ward 8, as well as Hamed Hamezehie, Farshad Kavousi, Reza Kianian-Mehr and Ali Divandari, who are serving sentences for financial corruption.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCoronavirus complications started to appear among the prisoners in Ward 8 two weeks ago,\u201d Monir Abdi said. \u201cMr. Abdi and four other infected prisoners are in the same room.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThe symptoms began two weeks ago, including loss of the sense of smell and taste, heartburn and severe coughing. Some had a fever, too. Mr. Amirsalar Davoudi had severe lung problems, and a CT scan showed his lungs are infected.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn Tuesday [August 4, 2020], 17 prisoners underwent blood and nasal mucus tests and the results came on Sunday [August 10] and showed 12 prisoners were infected.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The 12 were then taken to the prison clinic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSix of them are in one room and the other six in another room. But [only] Ali Divandari, the former director of Parsian Bank, has been transferred to the hospital,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the prison clinic, the infected prisoners have not been given any particular medications. Only their temperature is being monitored.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Abdi has body aches and breathing difficulties. He has a pre-existing condition and uses an asthma spray. He has also been prescribed blood pressure medicine. He has become very weak and we are very worried about his food intake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want him to be granted furlough or be taken to the hospital. We prefer furlough because the hospitals are full. It\u2019s a dangerous situation. Let him come home; we will keep him in quarantine and take care of him.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many Showing Symptoms, Only 17 Tested, Ill Prisoners Not Separated from Others<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In a\u00a0statement\u00a0published on August 9, 2020, the Free Workers Union of Iran (FWUI) also stated that the coronavirus had infected its chairman\u00a0Jafar Azimzadeh\u00a0and a number of other prisoners in Evin Prison\u2019s Ward 8. It stated:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLast Tuesday [August 4, 2020], after symptoms of the disease appeared in some of the inmates of Ward 8 in Evin Prison, the health authorities tested 17 prisoners for the coronavirus. Today, Sunday, August 10, it was determined that 12 of these 17 people tested positive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that more than 17 prisoners had symptoms of disease, and the test was performed only on them, the probability of a higher number of prisoners having contracted the disease in Ward 8 is very high. It is possible that all prisoners have contracted the coronavirus because they are in a closed, intertwined, over-populated environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026The judiciary and government officials have often claimed that sanitation and hygiene have been maintained in prisons and they refused to report any cases of the disease among prisoners. But now it has become clear that the authorities do not give the slightest importance to the prisoners\u2019 lives and health, and by keeping them in prison they are in fact condemning them to the slaughterhouse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026If, from the beginning, prisoners had been either released or granted furlough, we would not be witnessing the disease widely spreading among the prisoners now. \u2026They must release all prisoners in order to save their lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Separately, the FWUI also\u00a0confirmed\u00a0the names of other political prisoners who have tested positive for COVID-19, including\u00a0Esmail Abdi,\u00a0Amirsalar Davouudi\u00a0and Majid Azarpey, former Member of Parliament Fereydoun Ahmadi, the protester Saeed Sharifi, the Christian convert Mohammad Ali Mosibzadeh, and another prisoner named Mohsen Ghanbari.<\/span><\/p>\n

UN Has Strongly Criticized Iran\u2019s Treatment of Prisoners During Pandemic<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Iran emerged early on as one of the epicenters of the global pandemic; the government\u2019s response has been characterized by\u00a0denial,\u00a0misinformation and the suppression of information, and\u00a0inefficient safety measures, especially in the country\u2019s prisons. Iran\u2019s political prisoners were largely left out of Iran\u2019s March 2020 mass release of prisoners, which was aimed at stemming the mounting deaths from COVID-19 in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

UN experts have strongly criticized the authorities in Iran for inadequately addressing the health concerns of prisoners in Iran\u2019s overcrowded, unhygienic prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic, calling on\u00a0the judiciary to\u00a0expand its release to include prisoners of conscience and\u00a0dual and foreign nationals\u00a0and to release all arbitrarily detained individuals \u201cbefore it is too late.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Prominent Labor Activists, Lawyer and Journalist Among Those Falling Ill\u00a0 August 11, 2020\u2014Political prisoners in Iran\u2014including prominent labor leaders\u00a0Esmail Abdi\u00a0and\u00a0Jafar Azimzadeh, the human rights attorney\u00a0Amirsalar Davouudi, the journalist Majid Azarpey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[515,510,508,123,513,512,509,330,511,516,514],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-ali-divandari","tag-amirsalar-davouudi","tag-esmail-abdi","tag-evin-prison","tag-farshad-kavousi","tag-hamed-hamezehie","tag-jafar-azimzadeh","tag-mohammad-ali-mosibzadeh","tag-mohsen-ghanbari","tag-monir-abdi","tag-reza-kianian-mehr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1640,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions\/1640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}