Infamous Tehran prison fire ‘endangers’ prisoners’ lives

Gunshots and explosions were heard from inside a sprawling complex in northern Tehran, shrouded in smoke and lit by flames, during Saturday night’s blaze, according to footage posted on social media channels.

The demonstrations have morphed into a movement against the Islamic Republic, facing one of the biggest challenges since the ouster of the monarch in 1979: clerical leaders.

“Evin prison in Tehran is on fire and gunshots are clearly heard. The lives of all political prisoners and common crime prisoners are in grave danger,” said an Oslo-based non-governmental group. of Iran Human Rights (IHR) said.

In a video shared by the social media channel 1500tasvir, one of the protests’ main slogans, “Death to the Dictator” chants, were marched on.

Freedom of expression advocacy group Article 19 said it was “extremely concerned about the safety of the Evin detainees” after hearing reports of phone and internet connections at Evin camp being cut.

Iranian state media said early Sunday morning that a fire had been extinguished during “riots and clashes” at a prison.

Evin Prison houses foreign inmates, including French-Iranian scholar Fariba Adelka and U.S. citizen Siamak Namazi, whose families said this week after he was temporarily released. said to have been detained.

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

Award-winning Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi and reformist politician Mostafa Tazadeh are also among those believed to be detained in Evin.

– ‘The beginning of the end’ –

The young women are at the forefront of the current wave of street protests that erupted after Amini died on Sept. 16, three days after falling into a coma after being arrested by Iran’s notorious moral police. increase.

Video seen by AFP shows dozens of protesters jeering, whistling and hurling projectiles at security forces near a roundabout in the city of Hamedan, west of Tehran.

Massive protests were called on Saturday under the slogan “The beginning of the end!”

The unrest continued despite what Amnesty International called a “relentless and brutal crackdown” involving “an all-out attack on child protesters”, leading to the deaths of at least 23 minors. .

The crackdown has prompted international condemnation and sanctions against Iran from Britain, Canada and the United States.

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first published as Infamous Tehran prison fire ‘endangers’ prisoners’ lives