Iranian poet Baktash Abtin has died in prison after being arbitrarily detained. This article is published by The Center for Human Rights in Iran. Here is an excerpt:

The death of Iranian poet Baktash Abtin today in Tehran after contracting COVID-19 in Evin Prison is the result of the Iranian judiciary chief’s inhumane treatment of prisoners and the government’s refusal to hold responsible officials accountable.

Abtin, who died after being put into an induced coma while hospitalized, is the second known political prisoner to die in Iran in the first week of 2022. On January 1, Kian Adelpour died after going on hunger strike to protest being imprisoned without a fair trial.

“This is a preventable tragedy and more prisoners’ deaths are inevitable because there is no accountability in the Iranian government,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “Abtin was imprisoned in Iran because the government wanted to muzzle him with a jail cell; the state killed him.

Read the full article here.