Infamous Iran prison fire kills at least 4 inmates

Iranian authorities blamed “riots and clashes” by prisoners for the fire, but human rights groups said they believed little in the official version of the incident.

The other four were in “serious conditions” and the fire was extinguished, he added.

In video footage posted on social media channels, gunshots and explosions were heard during firing from inside the flame-lit and smoke-filled complex.

A wave of demonstrations has turned into a major opposition movement in the Islamic Republic, facing one of the biggest challenges since the ouster of the monarch in 1979: clerical leaders.

Hundreds of people arrested during recent demonstrations and crackdowns on civil society were sent there.

– “In big trouble” –

“Prisoners, including political prisoners, are completely defenseless inside their prisons,” said Hadi Gaemi of the Iranian Center for Human Rights, based in New York.

She said some prisoners in Ward 8, which holds political detainees, were transferred to another prison.

The four dead prisoners were convicted of robbery, Mizan said.

Australian academic Kylie Moore Gilbert spent most of her more than 800 days in Iranian prison custody at Evin.

“He can barely speak…he is in great pain,” their Twitter account said.

Hossein Sadeghi, the father of rights activist Arash Sadeghi, who was arrested days ago, said he had not received a call from his son. “We are very concerned about his condition,” he wrote on Twitter.

Agnes Callamard, Executive Director of Amnesty International, stressed that the Iranian authorities “have a legal obligation to respect and protect the life and well-being of all prisoners.”

“There’s another Cinema Rex fire,” they chanted in a video that has gone viral on social media. It refers to a deadly fire that took place in the 1970s and is believed to have sparked the 1979 Revolution.

At least 108 people were killed in the Amini protests and at least 93 in another clash in Zahedan, Sistan-Balchestan province, according to the IHR.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Beerbock said on Twitter that the fire may have been extinguished, but “our concern for the people in detention and their human rights has not stopped and will not stop.”

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first published as Infamous Iran prison fire kills at least 4 inmates