Shocking Conditions of Overcrowded Women’s Ward of Sepidar Prison

International Liberty Association: According to a report received from the Women’s Ward of Sepidar Prison, inmates held in overcrowded wards are at increased risk of a health catastrophe as the Covid-19 pandemic sweeps through Iran’s jails. As the temperatures soar to 50C in the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan Province, accounts by inmates provide a glimpse of conditions in this facility.

According to a credible source, despite the 50C temperature, women held in Sepidar Prison do not have air conditioners. The only air conditioner at the women’s ward is broken and the inmates do not even have a fan. Prison officials have not yet taken any measures to repair the air conditioner. The situation is made worse sometimes by water cut off.

The wards of this prison are overcrowded, and the inmates are jammed into small cells designed for far fewer people which have led to the prevalence of many diseases among the prisoners.

The source said a coronavirus outbreak that recently infected more than 50 of inmates at the prison has sparked fear among prisoners’ families that the deadly virus may spread further in such conditions.

The quarantine ward, which houses coronavirus patients in the prison, is separated from other inmates by only a few bars.

Prisoners with coronavirus share the same place for outdoor time as other prisoners.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran became publicly known in February 2020, many have been raising concerns for the wellbeing of those jailed in Iran.

Many human rights activists, prisoners and their families have made urgent calls for international investigators to visit prisons in Iran and see the conditions that inmates are being kept in.

ILA: A female prisoner who had been in the women’s ward of Sepidar Prison for a few days described its appalling conditions.

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