Evin Prison in Tehran, long notorious for both its hideous conditions and the large number of political prisoners held there, caught fire on Saturday.
Eight deaths were confirmed by the Iranian judiciary as of Monday morning, some of them reportedly shot by prison guards as they attempted to flee.
The Iranian regime vaguely attributed the casualties to “fights between inmates and a fire,” without any testimony, video evidence, or documentation. Regime media claimed half of the eight deaths claimed so far were from smoke inhalation.
Gunfire and explosions were clearly audible in video of the blaze posted by independent sources:
As illustrated above, some observers suspected the Iranian theocracy started the fire to dispose of inconvenient Evin political prisoners, which currently include hundreds of young people arrested during protests that have swept the nation since a 22-year-old Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini was killed by the “morality police” for allowing a lock of hair to emerge from beneath her mandatory Islamic headscarf.
Iranians who live in Brazil protest against the death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who died in Iran while in police custody, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Others wondered if protesters might have set the fire since Evin is a much-reviled symbol of the brutal Iranian theocracy. The regime claimed through state media that foreign operatives who have allegedly been orchestrating the Mahsa Amini protests sabotaged the prison.
“A review of its different dimensions of this event indicates due to the presence of these dual-national ‘spies’ or ‘spies’ who are citizens of western countries, this would attract sensitivity of those countries, igniting the protesters,” said a state newspaper quoted by Sky News on Monday.
The Iranian judiciary said on Saturday night that prisoners who were supposedly jailed for “robbery” and “financial crimes” had a fight in a workshop, and the fire broke out soon afterward.
“What occurred in the Evin Prison was a crime committed by a few of the enemy’s elements,” said judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei.
A picture obtained from the Iranian Mizan News Agency on October 16, 2022 shows damage caused by a fire in the notorious Evin prison, northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran. – Eight Iranian inmates were killed in a fire that raged through Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, the judiciary said on October 17, doubling the official toll from the blaze that further stoked tensions one month into protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini. Authorities in the Islamic republic have blamed the fire late on October 15 on “riots and clashes” among prisoners, but human rights groups said they doubted the official version of events and also feared the real toll could be even higher. (Photo by KOOSHA MAHSHID FALAHI / MIZAN / AFP) (Photo by KOOSHA MAHSHID FALAHI/MIZAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Mohseni Ejei claimed the fire was started in an assembly hall that was “constructed to allow the prisoners to develop their talents and give them training,” so not only did the arsonists allegedly destroy a facility meant to “improve the conditions of the inmates and help their families,” it was intended to murder prisoners and “leave their families in anguish.”
“Undoubtedly, the perpetrators of the crime in the Evin prison prepared the ground for the Zionist, American and British warmongering and chaos-creating centers and office,” he charged.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made similar accusations on Sunday, personally charging U.S. President Joe Biden with orchestrating the Amini protests.
“The American president, who allows himself through his comments to incite chaos, terror and destruction in another country, should be reminded of the eternal words of the founder of the Islamic Republic, who called America the Great Satan,” Raisi said.
An eyewitness inside the prison told the BBC on Monday that prisoners did not set the fire, contrary to the regime’s claims. Other sources within the prison said the guards deployed so much tear gas during the fire that inmates had to break windows in order to breathe.
Reuters on Monday noted “videos and posts on social media showed dozens of Iranian political prisoners being transferred from Evin to other jails,” to the great alarm of their relatives, who have not been told where their loved ones will be sent.
Information from within Evin prison is very difficult to obtain, as foreign observers are forbidden. The regime has stepped up its efforts to block foreign reporting and disrupt Internet communications during the Amini protests. Human rights groups have long accused the Iranian regime of abusive practices at Evin, including unsanitary and unsafe living conditions, violations of due process, physical torture, and sexual abuse.