The top United Nations official on human rights in Iran is calling on the country to release prisoners as the coronavirus ravages the country.
Javaid Rehman, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said on Tuesday that the country must do more to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to its many prisoners. Although Iran claimed it freed about 70,000 inmates on Monday, Rehman said that only those serving less than five years were let loose, according to Reuters.
Rehman explained that political prisoners and those with harsher sentences still remain behind bars.
“A number of dual and foreign nationals are at real risk if they have not … got [coronavirus] they are really fearful of the conditions,” he said. “This is also my worrying concern, and therefore, I have recommended to the state of the Islamic Republic of Iran to release all prisoners on temporary release.”
It is not clear if Rehman was referring to all Iranian prisoners or all political prisoners.
Iran has been one of the hardest-hit countries by the growing coronavirus outbreak. The regime claims that there have been more than 8,000 cases and almost 300 deaths, but that number has been disputed, with some academics and dissidents claiming thousands of more cases.
COVID-19 has killed a top adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has infected Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi and Masoumeh Ebtekar, who is one of the country’s vice presidents. Additionally, at least 10% of the country’s parliament has been infected.
Worldwide there have been at least 116,000 infections and more than 4,000 deaths.
