The cause of the fire last weekend remains unclear, but witnesses and families of prisoners say that the authorities had been bracing for unrest in the notorious Evin Prison in northern Tehran.
The aftermath of the Oct. 15 fire in Evin Prison, on Monday.Credit...Majid Asgaripour/Wana News Agency, via Reuters
By Farnaz Fassihi
Oct. 21, 2022
On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 15, Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani drove up the mountain road to the grim prison in northern Tehran where he is serving a 10-year sentence for financial corruption. He was returning after a brief furlough.
Swarms of anti-riot security forces, holding batons and guns, had taken position in the leafy area outside Evin Prison, a feared institution that has been a watchword for the torment and execution of those who have displeased the Islamic Republic’s rulers.
Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, the son of a former president, was stunned when prison authorities told him to return home until further notice, according to family members. The authorities told him they could not guarantee his safety in the section where he was being kept, Ward 7.
The clashes that day in Ward 7, coming against a backdrop of nationwide antigovernment protests, started in the afternoon, became more intense at dusk and then spread to other wards.
By 8 p.m., security forces were responding with concussion grenades and tear gas and firing pellets and live bullets at prisoners.
By 9:30 p.m., the prison was ablaze, with huge flames and clouds of smoke billowing into the night sky.
The government has said that eight prisoners were killed and 61 injured, and that the fatalities resulted from smoke inhalation. But human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say the casualties could be much higher and note that some prisoners suffered bullet wounds. The prison has suffered extensive damage and thousands of prisoners were transferred to other facilities.
This account of what transpired at Evin Prison is based on interviews with families of prisoners, lawyers representing them, residents of the area and accounts by activists and witnesses published in Persian media, as well as videos circulating on social media and a report by Amnesty International.
Important details remain unclear, including who started the fire and why. Video footage shows individuals pouring what appears to be fuel on the roof of a building, intensifying the fire. The compound has guard towers but the people on the roof do not come under attack in the video.
By Farnaz Fassihi
Oct. 21, 2022
On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 15, Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani drove up the mountain road to the grim prison in northern Tehran where he is serving a 10-year sentence for financial corruption. He was returning after a brief furlough.
Swarms of anti-riot security forces, holding batons and guns, had taken position in the leafy area outside Evin Prison, a feared institution that has been a watchword for the torment and execution of those who have displeased the Islamic Republic’s rulers.
Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, the son of a former president, was stunned when prison authorities told him to return home until further notice, according to family members. The authorities told him they could not guarantee his safety in the section where he was being kept, Ward 7.
The clashes that day in Ward 7, coming against a backdrop of nationwide antigovernment protests, started in the afternoon, became more intense at dusk and then spread to other wards.
By 8 p.m., security forces were responding with concussion grenades and tear gas and firing pellets and live bullets at prisoners.
By 9:30 p.m., the prison was ablaze, with huge flames and clouds of smoke billowing into the night sky.
The government has said that eight prisoners were killed and 61 injured, and that the fatalities resulted from smoke inhalation. But human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say the casualties could be much higher and note that some prisoners suffered bullet wounds. The prison has suffered extensive damage and thousands of prisoners were transferred to other facilities.
This account of what transpired at Evin Prison is based on interviews with families of prisoners, lawyers representing them, residents of the area and accounts by activists and witnesses published in Persian media, as well as videos circulating on social media and a report by Amnesty International.
Important details remain unclear, including who started the fire and why. Video footage shows individuals pouring what appears to be fuel on the roof of a building, intensifying the fire. The compound has guard towers but the people on the roof do not come under attack in the video.
It does seem clear, according to witness accounts and comments by at least one lawmaker, that prison authorities had advance knowledge of a pending crisis on Saturday and had prepared for a violent confrontation.
Debris in Evin Prison the day after the fire. The prison suffered extensive damage and thousands of prisoners were transferred to other facilities.Credit...Koosha Mahshid Falahi/Mizan News Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“Security agencies and the National Security Committee had warned key institutions about the potential of unrest and given them instructions,” Javad Karimi Ghodoosi, a conservative lawmaker, told Iranian media on Tuesday. “At Evin the security forces were placed on full alert.”
Government and judiciary officials have said the unrest was orchestrated by inmates and “enemy agents,” some of whom attempted to escape. Officials said several inmates set fire to a building that housed the sewing workshop and the fire spread to a textile warehouse.
More on the Protests in IranA Women-Led Uprising: Casting off their legally required head scarves, Iranian women have been at the forefront of the demonstrations, supplying the defining images of defiance.
Economic Despair: While Iranians have a range of grievances to choose from, the sorry state of Iran’s economy has been one of the main forces driving the protests. Strikes by oil-sector workers joining the protests could damage it further.
Memorials: Back-to-back memorial services for Mahsa Amini and Nika Shakaram, whose deaths have become symbols of the uprising, appear to be galvanizing protesters and breathing fresh momentum into a national movement led by women and young people.
But former prisoners said the workshop door is locked every day after 5 p.m. and that inmates have no access to the facility.
For five weeks, protests have rocked Iran, led by women and young people, demanding an end to the Islamic Republic in the aftermath of the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the morality police. The government has cracked down with violence and mass arrests but has so far failed to crush the movement.
Evin was not immune from the events on the streets of Tehran and other cities. Many prisoners had been staging demonstrations and sit-ins and chanting some of the anti-government slogans that have been a feature of the uprising.
Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday that it had gathered evidence that “raises serious concerns that the authorities sought to justify their bloody crackdown on prisoners under the guise of battling the fire and preventing prisoner escapes.”
Evin Prison is located on the slopes of mountains towering over Tehran, and for as long as the Islamic Republic has ruled, it has symbolized its iron fist. Generations of politicians, writers, activists, journalists, artists and dissidents have passed through its doors. They have been interrogated and tortured. Some have been executed.
In the week leading up to the fire, tensions were brewing in the prison. The authorities enforced new restrictions and intensified interrogations. Snipers appeared on the walls.
Men and women inmates staged protests during their outdoor breaks echoing the same slogans chanted outside: “Death to the dictator,” and “Women, Life, Freedom.”
On Friday, an uproar erupted in Ward 8 when five political prisoners, including a well-known writer, were forcefully transferred to a remote prison, the witnesses and the families of prisoners said. As word spread, other sections of the prison, including the women’s ward, joined in, chanting slogans in solidarity.
To intimidate them into silence, riot police marched through the yard shouting “Heydar! Heydar!” a Shia religious battle cry.
“Security agencies and the National Security Committee had warned key institutions about the potential of unrest and given them instructions,” Javad Karimi Ghodoosi, a conservative lawmaker, told Iranian media on Tuesday. “At Evin the security forces were placed on full alert.”
Government and judiciary officials have said the unrest was orchestrated by inmates and “enemy agents,” some of whom attempted to escape. Officials said several inmates set fire to a building that housed the sewing workshop and the fire spread to a textile warehouse.
More on the Protests in IranA Women-Led Uprising: Casting off their legally required head scarves, Iranian women have been at the forefront of the demonstrations, supplying the defining images of defiance.
Economic Despair: While Iranians have a range of grievances to choose from, the sorry state of Iran’s economy has been one of the main forces driving the protests. Strikes by oil-sector workers joining the protests could damage it further.
Memorials: Back-to-back memorial services for Mahsa Amini and Nika Shakaram, whose deaths have become symbols of the uprising, appear to be galvanizing protesters and breathing fresh momentum into a national movement led by women and young people.
But former prisoners said the workshop door is locked every day after 5 p.m. and that inmates have no access to the facility.
For five weeks, protests have rocked Iran, led by women and young people, demanding an end to the Islamic Republic in the aftermath of the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the morality police. The government has cracked down with violence and mass arrests but has so far failed to crush the movement.
Evin was not immune from the events on the streets of Tehran and other cities. Many prisoners had been staging demonstrations and sit-ins and chanting some of the anti-government slogans that have been a feature of the uprising.
Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday that it had gathered evidence that “raises serious concerns that the authorities sought to justify their bloody crackdown on prisoners under the guise of battling the fire and preventing prisoner escapes.”
Evin Prison is located on the slopes of mountains towering over Tehran, and for as long as the Islamic Republic has ruled, it has symbolized its iron fist. Generations of politicians, writers, activists, journalists, artists and dissidents have passed through its doors. They have been interrogated and tortured. Some have been executed.
In the week leading up to the fire, tensions were brewing in the prison. The authorities enforced new restrictions and intensified interrogations. Snipers appeared on the walls.
Men and women inmates staged protests during their outdoor breaks echoing the same slogans chanted outside: “Death to the dictator,” and “Women, Life, Freedom.”
On Friday, an uproar erupted in Ward 8 when five political prisoners, including a well-known writer, were forcefully transferred to a remote prison, the witnesses and the families of prisoners said. As word spread, other sections of the prison, including the women’s ward, joined in, chanting slogans in solidarity.
To intimidate them into silence, riot police marched through the yard shouting “Heydar! Heydar!” a Shia religious battle cry.
For weeks, protests have rocked Iran, led by women and young people demanding the ouster of autocratic Islamic leaders, prompted by the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police.
Credit...Associated Press
Then Saturday started ominously.
At the women’s ward, Alieh Motalebzadeh, a journalist and women’s rights activist who was being held there with Narges Mohammadi, a prominent human rights activist, heard sirens all morning. Both Ms. Motalebzadeh and Ms. Mohammadi’s telephone privileges have been revoked, according to their husbands.
“She said the sirens sounded suspicious and they didn’t know what was going on,” Ms. Motalebzadeh’s husband, Sadra Abdollahi, a filmmaker, said in a telephone interview from Tehran. He said he was also in direct contact with other prisoners. “Everyone tells me the circumstances on Saturday were extremely violent, like a war zone.”
Ms. Motalebzadeh was hospitalized after attempting suicide on Thursday, following an argument with a female prison guard who told her that she and other women inmates deserved to be killed in the prison unrest, Mr. Abdollahi said.
During their morning outdoor break, some of the women chanted anti-government slogans and banged on a rusty door that leads to a guard post. Guards flashed laser lights on their bodies to scare them. Some women overheard conversations among female guards of plans for riot police to attack the men’s ward.
That afternoon, skirmishes broke out in Ward 7, a three-floor structure where over a thousand inmates are kept, mostly criminal offenders convicted of theft, gang violence, drug smuggling and financial crimes. The inmates chanted anti-government slogans and rattled the bars of their cells, according to families, activists and lawyers.
The unrest at Ward 7 intensified and by dusk, anti-riot police and prison guards had entered the ward, clashing with inmates and flinging tear gas into the cells. In the haze of smoke and chaos the inmates broke through the doors to the yard and the adjacent door that connects Wards 7 and 8.
By 8 p.m., the security forces opened fire. Trapped in the yard and with bullets flying, some of the prisoners tried to escape the clashes but were shot, handcuffed and beaten on the head and face with batons, according to families, lawyers and the Amnesty report. Hundreds of prisoners, including those with gunshot wounds, were dragged into a gymnasium and beaten.
Mohammad Khani, a social researcher, was shot in the waist area with live bullets and has since developed a life-threatening infection. Yashar Tohidi, an aerospace engineering student, was shot in the thigh and has been hospitalized for extensive bleeding. The situations of both men, who were in prison on charges of acting against national security, were described by lawyers.
Hossein Ghashghaei, a writer serving a two-year sentence on charges of conspiring against national security, described a feeling of shock and anxiety among his cellmates in Ward 4 as they heard the commotion and gunshots, according to an account of his that was published on social media.
“In total shock we heard seven sounds of massive explosions that added to our confusion, our many questions and endless anxiety,” Mr. Ghashghaei wrote. “We were telling each other don’t get near the windows, you may get shot.”
Emad Sharghi, a dual national Iranian American businessman held on murky spying charges, was in Ward 8, adjacent to Ward 7, where the riots broke out. Around 8 p.m. he briefly called his sister, Neda, in Washington to say he was alive. Ms. Sharghi said she heard chaos and loud shouting in the background and what sounded like gunshots.
“I was imagining him trapped in his cell suffocating and burning to death from the fire,” Ms. Sharghi said, describing her emotions after seeing videos of Evin on fire hours after the call.
Mr. Sharghi remained in his cell at Ward 8, trapped in the chaos of bullets, smoke and flames for several hours, and was moved to another building around midnight when things had quieted down, according to his family.
Prison guards moved faster to remove Siamak Namazi, another Iranian American dual national being held on spying charges, from Ward 4, where clashes were reported including doors broken and tear gas fired. He was extracted along with a prominent politician who had murdered his wife, and along with two former officials serving terms for financial corruption: a senior judge and the brother of former President Hassan Rouhani.
The five men were all transferred to a ward inside Evin controlled by the intelligence branch of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to lawyers.
At the women’s ward, the prisoners heard gunshots and screams, and smelled the smoke from the fire, raising hopes that protesters had reached the prison and that they might be set free. They began chanting anti-government slogans and banging on the doors.
Their optimism faded when riot police raided the ward, pointing guns at them and hurling tear gas inside cells. A senior prison official prevented the forces from entering the cells and beating the women.
One woman inmate fainted. Many were coughing and having difficulty breathing. Access to medical care was denied, the prison was in chaos and nobody was allowed to move. The guards locked the gates to the cells and the doors.
“Their spirit has plummeted. They are trapped in a confined space with guns pointing at them,” Taghi Rahmani, the husband of Ms. Mohammadi, said in an interview from Paris.
“Their aim was to create fear, among the prisoners, the families and society that you are not safe no matter where you are,” he said.
Then Saturday started ominously.
At the women’s ward, Alieh Motalebzadeh, a journalist and women’s rights activist who was being held there with Narges Mohammadi, a prominent human rights activist, heard sirens all morning. Both Ms. Motalebzadeh and Ms. Mohammadi’s telephone privileges have been revoked, according to their husbands.
“She said the sirens sounded suspicious and they didn’t know what was going on,” Ms. Motalebzadeh’s husband, Sadra Abdollahi, a filmmaker, said in a telephone interview from Tehran. He said he was also in direct contact with other prisoners. “Everyone tells me the circumstances on Saturday were extremely violent, like a war zone.”
Ms. Motalebzadeh was hospitalized after attempting suicide on Thursday, following an argument with a female prison guard who told her that she and other women inmates deserved to be killed in the prison unrest, Mr. Abdollahi said.
During their morning outdoor break, some of the women chanted anti-government slogans and banged on a rusty door that leads to a guard post. Guards flashed laser lights on their bodies to scare them. Some women overheard conversations among female guards of plans for riot police to attack the men’s ward.
That afternoon, skirmishes broke out in Ward 7, a three-floor structure where over a thousand inmates are kept, mostly criminal offenders convicted of theft, gang violence, drug smuggling and financial crimes. The inmates chanted anti-government slogans and rattled the bars of their cells, according to families, activists and lawyers.
The unrest at Ward 7 intensified and by dusk, anti-riot police and prison guards had entered the ward, clashing with inmates and flinging tear gas into the cells. In the haze of smoke and chaos the inmates broke through the doors to the yard and the adjacent door that connects Wards 7 and 8.
By 8 p.m., the security forces opened fire. Trapped in the yard and with bullets flying, some of the prisoners tried to escape the clashes but were shot, handcuffed and beaten on the head and face with batons, according to families, lawyers and the Amnesty report. Hundreds of prisoners, including those with gunshot wounds, were dragged into a gymnasium and beaten.
Mohammad Khani, a social researcher, was shot in the waist area with live bullets and has since developed a life-threatening infection. Yashar Tohidi, an aerospace engineering student, was shot in the thigh and has been hospitalized for extensive bleeding. The situations of both men, who were in prison on charges of acting against national security, were described by lawyers.
Hossein Ghashghaei, a writer serving a two-year sentence on charges of conspiring against national security, described a feeling of shock and anxiety among his cellmates in Ward 4 as they heard the commotion and gunshots, according to an account of his that was published on social media.
“In total shock we heard seven sounds of massive explosions that added to our confusion, our many questions and endless anxiety,” Mr. Ghashghaei wrote. “We were telling each other don’t get near the windows, you may get shot.”
Emad Sharghi, a dual national Iranian American businessman held on murky spying charges, was in Ward 8, adjacent to Ward 7, where the riots broke out. Around 8 p.m. he briefly called his sister, Neda, in Washington to say he was alive. Ms. Sharghi said she heard chaos and loud shouting in the background and what sounded like gunshots.
“I was imagining him trapped in his cell suffocating and burning to death from the fire,” Ms. Sharghi said, describing her emotions after seeing videos of Evin on fire hours after the call.
Mr. Sharghi remained in his cell at Ward 8, trapped in the chaos of bullets, smoke and flames for several hours, and was moved to another building around midnight when things had quieted down, according to his family.
Prison guards moved faster to remove Siamak Namazi, another Iranian American dual national being held on spying charges, from Ward 4, where clashes were reported including doors broken and tear gas fired. He was extracted along with a prominent politician who had murdered his wife, and along with two former officials serving terms for financial corruption: a senior judge and the brother of former President Hassan Rouhani.
The five men were all transferred to a ward inside Evin controlled by the intelligence branch of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to lawyers.
At the women’s ward, the prisoners heard gunshots and screams, and smelled the smoke from the fire, raising hopes that protesters had reached the prison and that they might be set free. They began chanting anti-government slogans and banging on the doors.
Their optimism faded when riot police raided the ward, pointing guns at them and hurling tear gas inside cells. A senior prison official prevented the forces from entering the cells and beating the women.
One woman inmate fainted. Many were coughing and having difficulty breathing. Access to medical care was denied, the prison was in chaos and nobody was allowed to move. The guards locked the gates to the cells and the doors.
“Their spirit has plummeted. They are trapped in a confined space with guns pointing at them,” Taghi Rahmani, the husband of Ms. Mohammadi, said in an interview from Paris.
“Their aim was to create fear, among the prisoners, the families and society that you are not safe no matter where you are,” he said.
Prisoners on Monday in Evin Prison, which has long symbolized the iron fist of the Islamic Republic. Generations of politicians, writers, activists, journalists, artists and dissidents have passed through its doors.Credit...Wana News Agency, via Reuters
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Farnaz Fassihi is a reporter for The New York Times based in New York. Previously she was a senior writer and war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 17 years based in the Middle East. @farnazfassihi
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