Iran has temporarily freed about 85,000 people from jail, including political prisoners, in response to the coronavirus epidemic, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday. Iran has reported 16,169 coronavirus cases and 988 deaths from the virus in one of the worst national outbreaks outside China, where the pandemic originated. Asked whether political prisoners were among those freed, he told a briefing aired by state television: “Yes, about 50% of them were security-related prisoners.”
