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Iran-HRM – Kurdish political prisoner Esmail Moridi has sewn his lips closed in protest being denied temporary prison leave amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Esmail Moridi has on hunger strike and stitched his mouth closed since April 12, after his request for temporary release was rejected by the authorities despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
He has been imrisoned since five years ago serving a ten-year prison sentence at Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah, west of Iran.
Prison authorities have cancelled his phone calls and visits with his family just after announcing the hunger strike. His family is now seriously concerned about his health condition which has been reported as critical.
Esmail Moradi was arrested in June 2015 by the IRGC forces in Kermanshah and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of collaborating with Kurdish parties.
Iran’s prisons have hygiene, overcrowding and healthcare problems which are are highly susceptible to the spread of infectious disease.
As the Covid-19 infection and death toll of the novel coronavirus continues to mount across Iran, prisons are hit especially badly, as the regime refrains from providing them with the means to protect themselves against the virus.
In most prisons, including Evin, Qezelاesar, Gohardasht, Ardabil, Urmia, Quchan, Zahedan, Kermanshah, and Sanandaj the numbers of Corona cases are on the rise while there is no adequate medical treatment. All prisoners are at risk.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, United Nations human rights experts have recently called for the immediate release of thousands of political activists, dual nationals and foreigners imprisoned in Iran.
In a report released on April 20, the experts including the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, and the UN Special Rapporteur on arbitrary and unjust executions, Agnes Callamard asserted that while the regime’s Ministry of Health has officially stated that one person falls victim to Cocin-19 every ten minutes in Iran, the Iranian regime still holds many people in prisons.
“Iran’s prisons have long-standing hygiene, overcrowding, and healthcare problems. We urge the Iranian authorities to implement measures consistent with their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the right of persons deprived of their liberty to be treated with humanity and with respect for their inherent dignity, and the right to life”, the experts have asserted.
