Four Baha’i women have contracted the coronavirus in Birjand Prison.
According to the Campaign for the Defense of Political and Civil Prisoners, four Baha’i women citizens, Sara Mohammadi, Sheida Abedi, Simin Mohammadi and Maryam Mokhtari, have been infected with the coronavirus in Birjand Prison.
According to reports, these four Baha’i women citizens, after their prison leaves were due on May 26th, 2020, were transferred to Birjand Prison Quarantine ward.
In late March this year, with the outbreak of the coronavirus and the possibility of its spread in densely populated areas such as prisons and the lack of measures such as quarantine and social distancing and its expansion into Iranian prisons, many prisoners in the country’s prisons have contracted the coronavirus.
Earlier, on Friday, April 17th, 2020, a group of UN special human rights experts issued a statement urging Iranian authorities to release prisoners of conscience and dual citizenship immediately, given the serious risk of contracting the coronavirus in prisons.
Dozens of human rights organizations have also issued a joint statement calling for the release of imprisoned human rights defenders. Dozens of other members of the International Federation of Human Rights Societies (FIDH) in a joint statement called for the release of imprisoned human rights defenders, stressing the “serious risk of global disease” and the “rapidly expanding corona” (Quid 19).
The Campaign for the Defense of Political and Civil Prisoners has been reported on the number of prisoners that had contracted the coronavirus in prisons. Ali Younesi, a student at Sharif University in Evin Prison, Zeinab Jalalian, a political prisoner in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, Leila Mirghafari, a civil activist in Qarchak Varamin Prison, and Sam Rajabi, an environmental activist in Evin Prison, Habibollah Latifi, a political prisoner sentenced to life in prison in Sanandaj Central Prison, are few prisoners who have contracted the coronavirus in prisons.