Amnesty Accuses Iran of 'Deliberate' Denial of Healthcare to Prisoners

Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
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Amnesty Accuses Iran of 'Deliberate' Denial of Healthcare to Prisoners

Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Iran of deliberately denying life-saving medical care to prisoners, saying it had confirmed 96 cases since 2010 of detainees dying after a lack of treatment, AFP reported.

The report by Amnesty comes after several high profile cases this year alone of prisoners who died in custody due to what activists say was a failure by Iran to properly treat their illnesses.

These include the Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin who died in January after contracting Covid-19 and Shokrollah Jebeli, an 82-year-old dual Australian-Iranian national, who died in March after a succession of medical problems.

Amnesty said such deaths by deliberate denial of healthcare amounted to an extrajudicial execution while the failure of Iran to provide accountability were another example of the systematic impunity in the country.

"The Iranian authorities' chilling disregard for human life has effectively turned Iran's prisons into a waiting room of death for ill prisoners, where treatable conditions tragically become fatal," said Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

"Deaths in custody resulting from the deliberate denial of healthcare amount to arbitrary deprivation of life, which is a serious human rights violation under international law," she added.

Amnesty said it had confirmed the deaths in custody of 92 men and four women in 30 prisons in 18 provinces across Iran in such circumstances since January 2010 but these cases are "illustrative, rather than exhaustive" and the true number of cases likely to be higher.

The group said it had documented how prison officials frequently deny prisoners access to adequate healthcare, including diagnostic tests, regular check-ups, and post-operative care.

"This leads to worsening health problems, inflicts additional pain and suffering on sick prisoners, and ultimately causes or contributes to their untimely deaths."

It said 64 out of the 96 prisoners died in prison rather than hospitals. In the vast majority of cases, prisoners who died were young or middle aged, it said.

A large proportion of the deaths took place in prisons in northwestern Iran that house many inmates from the Kurdish and Azerbaijani minorities and in southeastern Iran where prisoners mostly belong to Iran's Baluch minority.

Abtin, 47, who had been convicted on national security charges and was seen by activists as a political prisoner, died of Covid-19 about six weeks after he first displayed symptoms in Tehran's Evin prison, Amnesty said.

"The authorities caused or contributed to his death by deliberately denying him timely access to specialized medical treatment at a facility well-equipped to deal with cases of Covid-19 after he fell ill with Covid-19 in early December 2022," Amnesty said.

It said Jebeli had died after being subjected to "more than two years of torture and other ill treatment through the denial of access to adequate specialized medical care" for conditions including kidney stones, a history of strokes, sciatica in his legs, high blood pressure, and an umbilical hernia.

Jebeli, who had been imprisoned in a financial dispute, died in hospital where he had been transferred after he was found unresponsive by other prisoners and had lost all control of his bladder and bowel movements, Amnesty said.



Ukraine Urges Investigation into Alleged Russian Chemical Weapons Use

The logo of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
The logo of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
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Ukraine Urges Investigation into Alleged Russian Chemical Weapons Use

The logo of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
The logo of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

Ukraine asked the global chemical weapons watchdog in The Hague on Tuesday to investigate the alleged use of banned toxic munitions by Russia against its forces.

A request to establish an investigation was submitted by Kyiv to the governing body of the organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

It followed Dutch and German intelligence agencies on Friday saying they had evidence of widespread use of illegal weapons by Russia along the frontline.

Agency chief Fernando Arias said in a statement to the OPCW's Executive Council that in view of the alleged frequent use of dangerous chemical agents his office would step up monitoring of activity along the Russia-Ukraine conflict line, Reuters reportf.

He invited Ukraine to discuss its proposal with member states, a majority of whom may be needed to support such an investigation.

The OPCW created a similar team in 2018 to examine accusations of chemical weapons use in Syria. The Investigation and Identification Team found that Syrian government forces and Islamic State militants had used banned chemical weapons in the civil war that began in March 2011. The United States first accused Russia in May last year of using chloropicrin, a chemical compound more toxic than riot control agents and first used by Germany during World War One. The OPCW, a disarmament agency in The Hague with 193 member states, said last year that initial accusations levelled by both countries at each other were "insufficiently substantiated".

Both sides have denied using chemical weapons in the conflict, which escalated when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

"Ukraine hereby requests the Director-General of the OPCW to take steps towards establishing an independent and impartial mechanism (to) investigate cases of alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine," a copy of the request shared with Reuters said.

It asked that the mechanism be empowered to "collect additional evidence and identify perpetrators, organisers, sponsors of such use."

It was submitted at the beginning of four days of closed-door meetings by the 41-country Executive Council of the OPCW. The disarmament body had no immediate comment on the request.

At least three Ukrainian deaths have been tied to chemical weapons use, the Dutch Military Intelligence Agency said, while more than 2,500 people injured on the battlefield reported chemical weapons-related symptoms to Ukrainian health authorities.

On Monday, Britain targeted two Russian individuals and one Russian entity as part of its chemical weapons sanctions regime, in its latest effort to punish Moscow for the war in Ukraine.