Jailed Iranian poet dies after contracting virus in prison

An Iranian poet who was in prison serving a six-year sentence on security charges died of COVID-19 contracted while in prison. Baktash Abtin, who also was a filmmaker, and who entered prison in September 2020, was transferred to a hospital in Tehran from the Evin Prison in mid-December. He was in a medically induced coma for a week before his death on Saturday. He began showing symptoms of the coronavirus a month ago, but prison authorities delayed getting him treatment.