A female political prisoner held ad Tabriz Prison has tested positive for Covid-19 disease. Masoumeh Senobari contracted the virus after the authorities refused to quarantine infected prisoners.
An informed source about the condition of this political prisoner said: “Masoumeh Sanobari coughs badly. She also has a high fever, and suffers from fore throat, dry mouth, lung pain and pain in all parts of the body.”
The families of a number of female inmates in Tabriz Prison have been told that nine prisoners have tested positive.
The authorities have denied the prisoners’ families request for medical leave.
There is no doctor or any isolation unit for women contracting the virus in this prison.
Prison officials did not separate patients from other detainees from the beginning, so many the inmates have now tested positive.
Masoumeh Senobari suffers from blurred vision, broken right leg and other problems due to torture during her detention.
Prison officials had previously denied her leave for medical treatment.
Furlough, temporary leave typically granted to prisoners in Iran for a variety of familial, holiday, and medical reasons, is routinely denied to political prisoners as a form of additional punishment.
According to Article 235 of the State Prisons Organization’s Regulations, transferring prisoners to medical facilities in chains “is not permitted unless in necessary cases determined by the head of the prison.”
Masoumeh Senobari was arrested on March 6, 2019 and taken to the detention center of the Department of Intelligence of Tabriz. On the same night, her house was raided and damaged and her personal belongings confiscated.
She has been sentenced to a total of eight years in prison. She was sentenced to one year for “propaganda against the state,” 5 years for “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK),” and 2 years for “insulting Khamenei.”
The 32-year-old political prisoner has one child and lives in Tabriz, capital of East Azerbaijan Province in northwestern Iran. She is presently detained in the women’s ward of the Prison of Tabriz.
She was tortured under interrogation so much that she could no longer walk. The blows of whip to her legs and feet cracked her bone which has not healed, yet. Also, because of blows to her head, her vision became blurry.
In July 2019, she was temporarily freed on a bail of 600 million tomans until her trial. However, she was arrested again at her sister’s home on February 5, 2020, without any prior notice. She was taken to the IRGC’s detention center in Tabriz.
The first court session convened on March 6, 2020, sentencing her to two years’ imprisonment. But the Intelligence Department fabricated a new case against her, based on which she recently received an 8-year sentence.
