ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran on Friday returned more than 600 prisoners to Evin Prison, weeks after an Israeli airstrike killed dozens and damaged the notorious facility.
“The transfer of inmates to prison has been carried out based on security protocols (having prisoners handcuffed during transfer) and with full observance of legal regulations and individuals’ rights,” said the public relations office of Tehran’s prison system, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
Israel struck the prison facility in June during their 12-day war after Iran executed a man accused of spying for Israel. At the time, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the attack on Evin was intended to deter Iran’s executions. The strike killed 79 people and destroyed part of the facility’s administrative building.
Iranian authorities moved inmates from Evin to other facilities, but families of prisoners raised concerns as many were left in the dark about the whereabouts of their relatives.
Returning the prisoners to Evin was also done without notifying family members, according to Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which said the transfer of 600 prisoners began at 4:00am.
“During the mass transfer of political prisoners from the Greater Tehran Prison to Evin Prison, six political prisoners on death row - Mohammad Taghavi, Shahrokh Daneshvarkar, Vahid Bani-Amrian, Pouya Ghobadi, Babak Alipour, and Babak Shahbazi - were violently beaten and separated from other inmates by security forces and taken to an unknown location. This move has raised serious concerns about the imminent execution of their sentences,” Hengaw stated.
Human rights activist and Evin inmate Mehdi Mahmoudian said in a post on X that reconstruction of the prison was not complete and described the return of prisoners as “a stubborn and irrational move by the authorities to project a return to the previous state of affairs.”
Established in 1972, Evin Prison in northwestern Tehran has long been a symbol of political repression in Iran. It is known for holding political prisoners, journalists, student activists and foreign nationals. The facility has been widely condemned by human rights organizations for systematic abuse, including alleged torture.
