At least four Iranian inmates died overnight in a fire at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, the judiciary said on Sunday, fueling tensions a month after protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
Iranian authorities blamed “riots and clashes” among prisoners for the fire, but human rights groups said they had little faith in the official version of events.
“Four detainees died of smoke inhalation from the fire and 61 were injured,” the Justice Department’s website Mizan Online reported.
Four others were in “serious condition,” it said, adding that the fire had been extinguished.
Relatives of the detainees and human rights groups expressed grave fears for the inmates and said the authorities had used tear gas at the facility.
Gunshots and explosions could be heard from inside the complex during the blaze, which was lit by flames and choked by smoke, in video footage posted to social media channels.
The fire came after four weeks of protests over the death of 22-year-old Amini after she was arrested for allegedly flouting Iran’s strict dress code for women.
The wave of demonstrations has grown into a major anti-government movement in the Islamic Republic and poses one of the greatest challenges to its clerical leadership since the Shah was overthrown in 1979.
Notorious for his abuse of political prisoners, Evin also holds foreign prisoners, and thousands face charges.
Hundreds of people arrested during recent demonstrations and a crackdown on civil society have been sent there.
“We do not accept official explanations,” Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said, adding it had received reports that guards had tried to “incite” detainees.
– “Arbitrarily Arrested” –
Human rights groups reported night-time protests in Tehran in solidarity with Evin prisoners, and other demonstrations took place on Sunday, including at Tehran University.
Iranian human rights activist Atena Daemi, herself a longtime inmate of Evin, wrote on Twitter that several buses and ambulances had left the facility in the early hours of Sunday.
She said some prisoners in Ward 8, which houses political prisoners, have been transferred to another prison.
The IHR reported that the relatives of the detainees gathered outside Evin on Sunday to receive information about their relatives.
Kazem Gharibabadi, deputy head of Iran’s judiciary, visited the prison and blamed “the detainees in Ward 7” for the unrest. He said the fire “didn’t spread to other stations.”
Citing a Tehran prosecutor, the official IRNA news agency said the clashes were “unrelated to the recent unrest in the country.”
The four deceased prisoners were convicted of robbery, Mizan said.
Evin prison is holding Franco-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and US citizen Siamak Namazi, whose family said he was re-arrested days ago after a temporary release. Namazi’s US attorney Jared Genser said he had spoken to his family and was unharmed.
France said it was “following with the utmost attention” the situation of French citizens “arbitrarily detained” at the facility.
– In danger’ –
Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who has been held behind bars in Iran in Evin for most of her more than 800 days, told AFP she has heard all female political prisoners are safe.
However, supporters of Austrian prisoner Massud Mossaheb said he was suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation and tear gas.
“He can barely speak… He is in great distress,” her Twitter account read.
Hossein Sadeghi, the father of human rights activist Arash Sadeghi, who was arrested days ago, said he spoke to his son.
Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard stressed that the Iranian authorities “have a legal obligation to respect and protect the lives and well-being of all prisoners”.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc expects “maximum transparency on the situation” from Evin.
The EU has agreed to impose new sanctions, a move expected to be endorsed by its foreign ministers on Monday.
At least 108 people were killed in the Amini protests, according to IHR, and at least 93 others died in separate clashes in Zahedan, Sistan-Balochistan province.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday accused US President Joe Biden of “inciting chaos” after expressing his support for protests while the Revolutionary Guard chief accused the West of a cultural “invasion” of Iranian schools.
“The riots are a path that emanated from strategic think tanks in America and England and has spread to our classrooms,” the Guards’ Sepah News website quoted Maj Gen Hossein Salami as saying.
