At least 26 inmates have been infected with the novel coronavirus in one of the halls of Ward 3 of the Greater Tehran Penitentiary. They are denied medical treatment at the time.
A sources from inside prison said, “The prisoners who are summoned to court on a daily basis, re-enter the ward without going through the quarantine. No screening takes place in this regard and there is a high risk that the number of patients, sick with the novel coronavirus increase in prison.”
Prisoners taken to the court or to the Bureau of Implementation of the Verdicts do not have adequate protective equipment including gloves, masks or covers. They are returned to the prison wards among other prisoners without going through a quarantine. This is while the procedures by the court and Implementation of Verdicts’ Bureau can be done online.
Likewise, prison guards who leave and return to the prison every day do not go through any quarantine and have access to all the wards.
Inmates become increasingly vulnerable to catch the virus with every passing day in the absence of any protection.
More than 150 inmates of Ward 4 of the Greater Tehran Penitentiary have written a letter to the deputy for Prison Hygiene, protesting the prisoners’ being returned to prison wards from court hearings, etc. without being quarantined, as well as the lack of hygienic resources. The sentry officer, however, refused to accept their letter and pass it on.
On April 7, two GTP prisoners by the names of Mehdi Rabii and Lashgari-panah lost their lives to the coronavirus.
The families of GTP detainees have already been deprived of visits for three months. They are not even allowed to visit their relatives from behind glass booths.
The spread of Cocid-19 has aggravated the prison’s poor condition, reports indicate. Food poisoning, contaminated water and any other illness in this facility raises the risk of the inmates being infected with coronavirus.
