about the outcome of such inspections. Additionally, there is no readily official and available
information as to the number of complaints, their nature and whether they have been adequately
investigated and adjudicated in compliance with international standards. There is no readily
available information that might suggest that custodial staff has been investigated for cases of
denial of medical care for detainees.
Amnesty International has documented cases where he application of Article 502 has been
arbitrarily denied and cases where political prisoners remaining in detention despite stateappointed doctors’ opinions that they were unfit to remain in prison and that their continued
imprisonment would mean an exacerbation of their condition. 5 Additionally, UN Special
Procedures have received numerous reports of deteriorating states of health of imprisoned human
rights defenders who are at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 while in detention, but
who haven’t been temporarily released earlier in 2020 along the 120,000 prisoners, as part of the
governmental strategy to mitigate the spread of the virus.6 7
More recently, the case of the detention of the human rights defender Mr. Arash Sadeghi
suggests that the Islamic Republic of Iran does not ensure that all prisoners with health
conditions, for whom staying in prison would mean an exacerbation of their condition, are not
detained in prison.
Mr. Arash Sadeghi,8 detained since 2016, was the subject of six communications from Special
Procedures, raising concerns about his poor state of health while being held in detention.9 The
Government only responded to four of them, and despite the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention’s Opinion in 2018, founding that Mr. Sadeghi is being arbitrarily deprived of his
liberty, has not released Mr. Sadeghi as of November 2020. The most recent communication
from Special Procedures raising concerns about Mr. Sadeghi’s lack of access to medical care was
sent in September 2020 and, as of November 2020, has remained unanswered. Mr. Sadeghi
suffers from a rare form of bone cancer, which caused the loss of movement of his right arm, and
which UN Special Procedures believe to “appear to qualify him for medical furlough.”10 Mr.
Sadeghi has been repeatedly denied access to medical care despite his worsening health
condition.
As of February 2021, Mr. Sadeghi has not been issued an alternative sentence despite his health
condition.
5
See more: Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1341962016ENGLISH.PDF
OHCHR News, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26244
7
UN News, https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1074722
8
United For Iran, https://ipa.united4iran.org/en/prisoner/1931/
9
Special Procedures Communication sent to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 8 September 2020, UA IRN
21/2020, https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25522
10
Special Procedures Communication sent to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 8 September 2020, UA IRN
21/2020, https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25522
6
2