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Details of a chaotic night marked by tear gas and explosions from an Iranian prison emerged after a fatal fire at the facility on Saturday.
The death toll from the fire in Tehran’s Evin prison has risen to eight, the state-allied Tasnim news agency said on Twitter on Monday. Citing the Iranian authorities, previous reports published by the state-run IRNA news agency said that dozens of others were injured after prisoners set fire to a warehouse.
The brutal facility is notorious for holding political prisoners in the country, which has seen mass protests in recent weeks against the Islamist regime that has ruled it for decades.
Award-winning film director Jaafar Panahi, 62, who is among the dissidents imprisoned in Evin, said guards fired tear gas at the inmates, according to his wife, Tahira Saidi.
In an interview with Radio Farda – the Iranian branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty funded by the US government – Saeedi said that her husband called her from prison and told her that he and fellow imprisoned filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof were in good health.
Saidi added that from the time the fire broke out on Saturday night until she received a call from her husband the next day, it was the worst hour of her life.
The activist group 1500 Tasfer said earlier that in videos posted on social media, gunshots were heard and Iranian special forces were seen heading to the area where the prison is believed to be.
Sources inside the prison told reform outlets IranWire that guards fired tear gas throughout the night after the fire broke out. IranWire reported that in many cases, prisoners had to break their windows so they could breathe.
In a tweet on Twitter Sunday, Evin rights activist and ex-prisoner Atena Daimi said security officials fired tear gas, citing a woman inmate.
Al-Daimi said the inmates of Wing 8 had no water, gas or bread, and 45 of them were taken “to an unknown location.” “Everyone is fine now, but they are worried about being transferred to other prisons, solitary confinement and interrogation.”
Mostafa Nili, a lawyer representing a number of prisoners, said on Twitter that several prisoners had been transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison, about 20 kilometers west of Tehran. Video from IranWire showing a bus carrying prisoners from Evin.
On Monday, Tasnim reported, citing a media center for the Iranian judiciary, that all eight prisoners who died were imprisoned for theft.
Also, imprisoned journalist Nilofar Hamidi is safe after Saturday’s fire, according to a tweet from her husband, Muhammad Hussein.
“She told me she didn’t know what happened in Evin last night but said she heard the horrific sounds and thought something terrible had happened,” Hussain said, adding that she was fine.
Hussain said that Hamidi is being held in Section 209 in Evin—known for holding prisoners of conscience—and has no information about other areas of the prison.
The Iranian-American Siamak Namazi, who has been held in Iran for seven years and forced back to prison on Wednesday after being briefly released on leave, is also safe, according to Namazi’s family attorney Jared Jenser.
Jenser said Namazi was taken to a secure area of the prison and spoke to his family.
Speaking earlier to Iran’s state radio, Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi said the “conflict” in prison was not linked to the protests that swept the country after the death of a young woman in police custody.
In September, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly not wearing a headscarf properly. Iranian authorities have since launched a brutal and deadly crackdown on protesters who have united around a range of grievances from the country’s authoritarian regime.
“No prisoner is safe in Iran, where people are mutilated and killed for criticizing the state,” Hadi Ghaemi, head of the New York-based Independent Center for Human Rights in Iran, said on Twitter on Sunday. The political prisoners in Evin and Iran must be released. All prisoners should have access to proper medical treatment + access to a lawyer/families.”
Gemi also urged the United Nations to hold Iran’s leaders accountable in a call echoed by Amnesty International’s Secretary-General and former UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard.
Callamard said in a tweet on Sunday that a special session of the UN Human Rights Council should be convened to create a “UN investigation and accountability mechanism on the Iranian government and religious authorities,” noting “too many crimes against the Iranian people.”
Originally published at San Jose News Bulletin
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