Iran, one of the countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, has temporarily released around 85,000 prisoners due to the fear of the novel coronavirus. However, political and academic prisoners remain incarcerated. Political prisoners and academics such as Niloufar Bayani, have also been excluded from the furloughing, even when they contract the COVID-19. On August 5, 2021, Endangered Scholars Worldwide learned that Niloufar Bayani, 34, a researcher, conservationist, and scholar— who has been imprisoned in Tehran since February 2018 and has been serving a 10-year prison sentence since February 2020 on charges of espionage—was transferred to the Evin Prison quarantine ward after testing positive for Covid-19. Reports indicate that Iranian authorities do not provide proper medical care to detainees in the quarantine ward.
Bayani is the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation program manager, a former McGill University research assistant and alumna a Columbia University, and a former project consultant for UN Environment.
She was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of “contacts with the U.S. enemy state” and “gaining illegitimate income” on November 23, 2019.
On February 18, 2020, BBC Persian published smuggled letters that Bayani wrote in Evin Prison. The letters horrifyingly detailed psychological and physical torture and threats of sexual violence by her male interrogators.
The ongoing outbreak of Covid-19 in Iran’s prisons has accentuated the urgent need to release political prisoners. We at Endangered Scholars Worldwide consider Niloufar Bayani’s detention a flagrant and unjust violation of a researcher’s freedom, security, and safety—arrested without cause, held for months in solitary confinement, and without access to a lawyer, and subjected to physical mistreatment and psychological abuse. Endangered Scholars Worldwide deplores and condemns the ongoing detention, persecution, conviction, and mistreatment of Niloufar Bayani and calls upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights to strongly protest and condemn this arbitrary incarceration; to ask for her immediate and unconditional release; and to urge the officials of the Iranian government to release all prisoners of conscience, especially those who pose no threat to the public, as Covid-19 spreads rapidly in Iranian prisons.
CC:
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Jomhouri Street
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 644 11
Website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/www.Khamenei.ir
President Raisi
The Office of the President
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Javad Zarif
Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Minister’s Office
Imam Khomeini Square
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 66743149
Website: http://www.mfa.gov.ir
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jzarif
Michelle Bachelet
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org
Dr. Koumbou Boly Barry
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Email: sreducation@ohchr.org
David Kaye
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
Email: freedex@ohchr.org
Josep Borrell
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
European Commission
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium
Marija Pejčinović Burić
Secretary General of the Council of Europe Council of Europe
Avenue de l'Europe
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex
France
Fax: + 33 3 88 41 27 99
Christophe Poirel
Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law Council of Europe
Avenue de l'Europe
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex
France
Fax: + 33 3 88 41 27 99