Dear Director General,

I would like to thank you that a WHO expert mission will visit Tajikistan this week to study the realities about the coronavirus in our country.

The National Alliance of Tajikistan in a letter dated 20 April 2020 informed you its concerns about the statements of your acting representative in Tajikistan. Now, I would like to draw your attention to a very important issue, the spread of coronavirus in the prisons of Tajikistan.

Finally, the Tajik authorities today admitted that about 20 prisoners in Dushanbe and Vahdat prisons, who had temper and sore throats, were kept in quarantine. (https://rus.ozodi.org/a/30578733.html and https://akhbor-rus.com/-p4313-161.htm) There had been previously news about the spread of the coronavirus in Tajikistan’s prisons and many relatives were concerned about the health of their prisoned ones.

It is worthy to note that prisoners, especially those who are above 50 years old, are more likely to suffer early deaths from the virus due to the bad situations of prisons in Tajikistan and weak immune system of the prisoners. The Tajik civil society had frequently asked the government to free the prisoners, especially those who are above 50 years old, during the coronavirus, as many countries in the world has done so.

If the government insists in not freeing the prisoners, we may witness mass death among the Tajik prisoners in near future. I expect the WHO expert mission will raise this problem during their visit to Tajikistan.

So, I kindly request you to urge the government of Tajikistan to free the prisoners, especially, the elder ones because of this pandemic coronavirus.

Thanks

With regards

Muhiddin Kabiri

President, the National Alliance of Tajikistan