This image obtained from the Iranian news agency IRNA on Oct. 16, 2022, shows damage caused by a fire outside the Evin prison building in the northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran. (Credit: IRNA)
Iran’s judiciary said Monday that eight prisoners were killed in a fire that raged amid unrest inside Tehran’s Evin prison, doubling the previously reported death toll.
After four inmates injured in Saturday night’s blaze died in hospital, “the total number of victims of the fire and the clash between prisoners has reached eight,” according to the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.
A fire broke out Saturday in Tehran's Evin prison, where many of Iran's political and dual-national detainees are held, and witnesses reported hearing gunfire.
According to state media, many people have been injured in the unrest, which erupted after nearly a month of protests across Iran over the death in detention of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman. The protests have posed one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution, with demonstrations spreading across the country and some people chanting for the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Early on Sunday, IRNA carried a video it said showed prison areas damaged by fire. Firemen were seen dousing the debris with water, apparently to prevent the blaze from reigniting. The prison mostly holds detainees facing security charges, including Iranians with dual nationality. It has long been criticized by Western rights groups and was blacklisted by the US government in 2018 for "serious human rights abuses."
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American imprisoned for nearly seven years on espionage-related charges rejected by Washington as baseless, returned to Evin on Wednesday after being granted a brief furlough, his lawyer said.
Other US citizens held in Evin include environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who also has British nationality, and businessman Emad Shargi, according to human rights lawyer Saeid Dehghan.
He added that several other dual nationals are held at Evin, including French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and Iranian-Swedish Ahmadreza Djalali, a disaster medicine doctor.