Coronavirus: Iran sets free 54,000 prisoners to combat spread
Iran has temporarily released more than 54,000 prisoners in an effort to combat the spread of the new Coronavirus disease in crowded Jails.
Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili Told Reporters that the inmates were granted Furlough after testing negative for Covid-19 and posting bail.
“Security prisoners” sentenced to more than five years will not be let out.
The Jailed British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe may be freed soon, according to a British MP.
Tulip Siddiq cited the Iranian Ambassador to the UK as saying that Zaghari-Ratcliffe “may be released on furlough today or tomorrow”.
Her husband said on Saturday that he believed she had contracted Covid-19 and that the prison authorities were refusing to test her.
But Esmaili insisted on Monday that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had subsequently been in contact with her family and “told them about her good health”.
Iran’s Covid-19 outbreak has killed at least 77 People in less than two weeks.
On Tuesday, the number of confirmed cases rose by 50% for the second day in a row. It now stands at 2,336, although the real figure is believed to be far higher.
A number of senior Iranian officials have contracted the virus. Among the latest is the head of the Emergency Medical Services, Pirhossein Kolivand.
An adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died on Monday after contracting the novel coronavirus, state radio said .
Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 71, was a member of the Expediency Council that advises Khamenei. He is the latest Iranian official to contract the virus.
