ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The fire that broke out at Iran’s notorious Evin prison overnight killed four prisoners and injured 61 others, the Iranian judiciary’s website claimed on Sunday.
"Four prisoners died due to smoke inhalation caused by the fire and 61 were injured," Mizan online reported, adding that four other inmates are in critical condition. It also claimed that the four dead prisoners had been facing charges for theft and robbery.
On Monday, Mizan stated that four other people had died of their injuries in hospital, raising the total death toll to at least eight.
A fire erupted at the prison in the capital of Tehran which holds political prisoners and foreign detainees. Hundreds have also been detained during the latest wave of countrywide protests. Iranian state media claimed that the fire had been caused as a result of clashes between inmates, and that situation was currently under control.
As protests continue, the fire has added further momentum to the movement, with social media footage showing protesters chanting “death to dictator” near the facility.
Authorities have cracked down violently on protesters over the past month. On Thursday, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said that at least 201 people have been killed across Iran since protests began on September 16 when 22-year-old Mahsa (Zhina) Amini died while in the custody of the morality police.
Iranian authorities are also pressuring Kurdish Sunni clerics to recant their support for the nationwide protests which have entered their fifth week, and while no arrests have been made, they are facing intimidation and threatening phone calls, one cleric told Rudaw English on Saturday.
Around 340 Kurdish Sunni clerics, who released a statement in support of the protests movement in the Kurdish cities of western Iran (Rojhelat), were “threatened with death” by authorities, according to telegram channel the Sunni front in Iran. In addition, authorities demanded that the Sunni clerics withdraw their support for the protests and declare a public apology for their participation in the protests.
One cleric, whose identity has been concealed for his safety, told Rudaw English that no arrests have been made but that many of his peers have been “summoned” or “received threatening phone calls.”
The use of violence by Iranian security forces to crush the demonstrators has been widely condemned by the international community.
Iran’s population is majority Shiite Muslims, although it has a sizable Sunni population in its eastern provinces of Balochistan and Turkmenistan, as well as in the Kurdistan province in the west of the country.
Since the protests began, Balochis have been subjected to some of the most violent crackdown by authorities, with human rights monitors labeling it a massacre. Last month, at least 42 people were killed in and over 200 wounded the city of Zahedan.
Additional reporting by Fuad Haghighi
Updated on October 17, 2022 at 8:52am
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