At least four inmates killed in fire at notorious Iran prison

PARIS — At least four Iranian inmates died in a fire in Tehran's notorious Evin prison overnight, the judiciary said on Sunday, further stoking tensions one month into protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

The Iranian authorities blamed the fire on "riots and clashes" among prisoners, but rights groups said they had little faith in the official version of events.

"Four prisoners died due to smoke inhalation caused by the fire, and 61 were injured," the judiciary authority's website Mizan Online reported.

Four others were in "serious condition" and that the fire had been extinguished, it added.

Prisoners' relatives and rights groups voiced grave fears for the inmates.

Gunshots and explosions were heard during the blaze from inside the complex, illuminated by flames and smothered by smoke, in video footage posted on social media channels.

The fire came after four weeks of protests over the death of 22-year-old Amini, after her arrest for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women.

The wave of demonstrations has turned into a major anti-government movement in the Islamic republic, confronting its clerical leadership with one of its biggest challenges since the ousting of the shah in 1979.

Evin, infamous for the ill-treatment of political prisoners, also holds foreign detainees and thousands facing criminal charges.

Hundreds of those arrested during the recent demonstrations and in a crackdown on civil society have been sent there.

“We do not accept official explanations” the Norway-based non-government group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said about Iran’s official comments, adding that it had received reports that guards had sought to “incite” prisoners.

There were also reports, backed by images, of explosions rocking the inside of the prison complex, gunshots heard and even a projectile being fired from outside into the jail.

“Prisoners, including political prisoners, are completely defenceless inside that prison,” said Hadi Ghaemi of the New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran.

Iranian rights activist Atena Daemi, herself a long-time inmate of Evin, wrote on Twitter that in the early hours of Sunday several buses and ambulances were seen leaving the prison.

She said that some prisoners in Ward 8, that houses political detainees, had been transferred to another jail.

Citing a Tehran prosecutor, the official IRNA news agency said the clashes at Evin had “nothing to do with the recent unrest in the country”.

The four inmates who died had been convicted of robbery, Mizan said.

Evin prison holds French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and US citizen Siamak Namazi, whose family said he was taken back into custody days ago after a temporary release. Namazi’s US attorney Jared Genser said he had spoken to his family, and that he was unharmed.

Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was held in Evin for most of her 800-plus days behind bars in Iran, told AFP she had heard that all the women political prisoners were safe.

But 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 big distress,” their Twitter account said.

Hossein Sadeghi, the father of rights activist Arash Sadeghi who was arrested days ago, said he had received no calls from his son. “We are very worried about his condition,” he wrote on Twitter.

Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh are also among those believed to be held at Evin — sometimes dubbed “Evin University” because of the many intellectuals held there.

Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnes Callamard stressed that Iranian authorities “have the legal obligation to respect and protect the lives and well-being of all the prisoners”.

Rights groups reported night-time protests in Tehran in solidarity with Evin detainees and more demonstrations were held Sunday, including at Tehran University.

“Another Cinema Rex fire is happening,” they chanted in a video circulating on social media — referring to the deadly 1978 fire at a movie theatre in southwestern Iran which killed hundreds, and is seen by some as having triggered the 1979 revolution.

“Enough is enough!”

At least 108 people have been killed in the Amini protests, and at least 93 more died in separate clashes in Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan province, according to IHR.

The European Union has agreed to level new sanctions, a move expected to be endorsed by its foreign ministers on Monday.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted that the fire may be out but “our concern for the people held there and their human rights cannot and will not stop”.