Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
Shabtabtab – Today the International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights (IOPHR) in a letter sent to Dr Javaid Rehman, (The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran) requested his assistance in freeing all political prisoners in Iran due to the rapid spread of coronavirus within Iranian prisons.
In the letter IOPHR states that according to the unanimous opinion of experts and some of the current Iranian parliamentarians, the official statistics provided by the Iranian Ministry of Health are unrealistic as the number of infections, and fatalities from coronavirus, is much higher than stated by the government statistics and has spread amongst the prison population in Iran.
The letter also urges the UN and other international bodies to send a special delegation to Iran, so that they can visit the prisons, and meet with the political prisoners, in order to prevent a possible humanitarian catastrophe. As IOPHR believes that the coronavirus epidemic could provide the regime with the opportunity to eliminate all political prisoners under the pretext of becoming victims of coronavirus.
The letter also stresses that given the historical record of the Islamic Republic, with regards to committing mass murder of prisoners, especially given the mass execution of over 30,000 prisoners in the summer of 1988, one should not underestimate the Iranian regime’s ability to use any excuse to eliminate all its opposing voices. Therefore, IOPHR urges the UN human rights bodies, especially the United Nations Human Rights Council, to respond to this extremely dangerous situation, by putting added pressure on the Iranian regime to free all political prisoners for at least the duration of the coronavirus epidemic like it did last week for 54,000 other prisoners.
The full statement can be seen via below link:
