Jalalian, who is Iran’s only female political prisoner sentenced to life behind bars, claims that authorities are preventing her transfer to a hospital outside of Qarchak prison, south east of Tehran.
“On Tuesday June 2, Zeinab Jalalian was taken to the medical facility at the prison, and after medical examinations and carrying out tests, she was diagnosed with COVID-19,” Ali Jalalian, her father told Kurdistan Human Rights Network, a Paris-based NGO that monitors human rights violations in the Kurdish areas of western Iran.
In a telephone call, Jalalian told her family on Saturday that she is being quarantined at the prison in a separate room with several other inmates infected with the virus. They say she reports experiencing a high fever and shortness of breath.
The novel coronavirus has ravaged Iran since mid-February, becoming the virus’ epicenter in the region. According to health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpour, 8,291 people have died as a result of virus-related complications in the country as of Sunday lunchtime, with 171,789 total cases nationwide.
Iranian authorities have furloughed over 100,000 prisoners to mitigate the spread of the virus in overcrowded prisons, but refused the release of most political prisoners, including Jalalian and a host of other female political prisoners including lawyers and activists, in the deal.
The political prisoner was born in the village of Dem Gheshlaq in Iran’s western Azerbaijan province. She had been involved in cultural and women rights activities in Kurdish areas of both Iran and Iraq.
The activist was detained in 2008, when four officers “violently kicked her and removed her from the bus” that she was travelling in between Kermanshah and Sanandaj.
She was reportedly tortured at the detention facility of the Ministry of Intelligence after refusing to confess to Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) membership and beg for forgiveness on camera. Initially sentenced to death by the revolutionary court in Kermanshah for “enmity against God” in 2008, her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in 2011 by the court of appeal.
One source who spoke to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2016 stated that “although Ms. Jalalian’s activism and activities were supported by the PJAK, there is no evidence that she was ever involved, either directly or indirectly, in PJAK’s armed militant wing.”
Spending the majority of her sentence at Khoy prison, Jalalian was unexpectedly moved to Qarchak prison on April 29 without any explanation. Her father believes the authorities are planning on launching another case against her.
The continued detention of Jalalian comes four years after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ordered Iran to release Jalalian and provide compensation for her unjust detention.
“Taking into account all the circumstances of the case, especially the risk of irreparable harm to Ms. Jalalian’s health and physical integrity, the Working Group considers that the adequate remedy would be to release Ms. Jalalian immediately, and accord her an enforceable right to compensation in accordance with article 9, paragraph 5 of the ICCPR,” The UN group said referring to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Iran is a party.
PJAK is an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group. While generally considered the Iranian wing of the PKK, the organization claims they are merely linked by a shared ideology.
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