HUMAN-RIGHTS activist Nasrin Sotoudeh was today joined by at least three other imprisoned activists in a hunger strike to demand the release of all political prisoners held in Iran, in the light of the coronavirus.

Ms Sotoudeh had announced her hunger strike on Tuesday.

In a statement from the country’s notorious Evin prison, where all the hunger strikers are held, Ms Sotoudeh said: “The same military and intelligence agencies that compromise the safety of this nation with their antagonistic policies are insisting on keeping the political prisoners in prisons until the horrors of this health crisis spread to their lives and impact their families as well.”

Iranian authorities say that they have released 85,000 detainees in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19. According to a judiciary spokesman, about half of them were “security-related” — a term Iranian authorities use to refer to political prisoners.

But thousands of others remain behind bars, with Ms Sotoudeh insisting that Iran has a “national obligation” to release them.

“Since none of my legal requests and judicial correspondence regarding the release of political prisoners have been answered, as the last option I am going on hunger strike to once again demand their release,” she said.

Ms Sotoudeh was sentenced to five years in prison for her work in women’s rights and as a human-rights lawyer.

She had an additional seven charges added months later, with sentences totalling 33 years behind bars and 148 lashes. One of the sentences was of 12 years in prison for “promoting immorality and indecency.”

Iran has been impacted the most in the Middle East by the coronavirus, with more than 17,000 confirmed cases and 1,135 deaths.