(Newswire.net — March 5, 2020) — Iran has temporarily released 54,000 mainly political prisoners to prevent the spread of the corona virus in overcrowded prisons.
Gholamhossein Esmaili, a spokesman for the Iran justice ministry, told reporters that the prisoners in this country were temporarily released after being tested negative for the corona virus.
This measure only applies to those sentenced to less than five years in prison, BBC reports.
The jailed British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe may be released soon, according to a British MP. British-Iranian Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was accused of espionage back in 2016 and detained at Tehran’s Evin prison.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, believes his wife contracted the coronavirus “in large part due to the lack of hygiene materials made available to the prisoners” in Evin political prison, CNN reports. She also complain about a flu-like symptoms with fever.
“We are concerned by the prison authorities’ refusal to test her, and the wider suppression of coronavirus inside the Iranian prison system,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband said. He called on “the UK government to insist that Nazanin is tested for coronavirus immediately, and is treated properly.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, however, was tested negative to Covid-19.
More Iranian officials have been infected with the virus, including Iran’s deputy health minister and an MP. They have both tested positive for the Covid-19 virus strain.
The world is in an ‘uncharted territory’ when it comes to the spread of the corona virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
WHO President Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the virus is “unique” but that it could be stopped with some health measures.
The death toll worldwide has exceeded 3,000. Most of that number comes from China, but in the last few days, there have been nine times more infected outside China than in that country