The prison dates from the time of the Shah and is the place where the worst atrocities of the Islamic Republic are committed. Inside they lock up and execute common prisoners, activists and dissidents. There are numerous reports of extremely serious human rights violations and abuses. In mid-October, a mysterious fire paralyzed the facility for hours. They announce a public trial against a thousand defendants, for their participation in the protests for Mahsa Amini.
Milan () – Evin is a black hole that, for 50 years, has swallowed dissidents, activists, opponents, citizens with dual nationality hostile to the regime or unsuspecting foreign tourists, trapped in the networks of repression or used as currency. exchange with international powers. A place of violence and terror, of abuse and torture, where rape is used systematically, against women and men, to extract confessions or as another means of coercion. All this, and much more, emerges from the testimonies about the infamous Evin prison. Located on the outskirts of Tehran, the jail is a symbol of the grip of the Islamic revolution and is used to silence those who oppose the dictatorship. Many have never managed to leave this place where death sentences are carried out in silence by hanging -and many others are simulated as a means of pressure- and the relatives of the accused are informed when the act has already been carried out.
The prison made headlines again in mid-October following a devastating fire whose origin remains mysterious – and was never clarified by the authorities. For several hours, the incident shook a nation already marked by the death of the Kurdish Mahsa Amini, 22, at the hands of the morality police, after being arrested at the exit of the metropolitan subway for wearing the hijab incorrectly. The crime shook consciences and triggered street protests that continue 40 days later and are being bloodily repressed by Tehran. The Iranian government yesterday announced a “massive public trial” for “subversion” against a thousand defendants for their participation in the demonstrations.
the university of terror
Evin prison, in the homonymous suburb of the capital, is a detention center that has been used since its creation in 1972 – under the Shah of Persia, seven years before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 – to house political prisoners. With the rise of the Ayatollahs, a wing nicknamed “Evin University” was created due to the high number of students and intellectuals locked up in it. According to activists and independent groups, “serious human rights violations and abuses of all kinds” took place in the prison against political dissidents and government critics. For more than 40 years, it has been a symbol of the Islamic Republic’s authoritarian regime, where incidents and riots – unlike in mid-October – rarely break outside the prison walls and become known to the public. general public.
From the stories that managed to circumvent censorship and the former prisoners who managed to get out of there, it can be deduced that the facilities are divided into three well-defined areas, with related reference buildings and ministries: one for common crimes, a second under the control of intelligence services and a third specifically for political prisoners, including foreigners. This last section has been especially saturated in recent times, due to the massive wave of arrests in response to the demonstrations for the murder of Mahsa Amini. Evin is famous precisely for being the place where all political dissidents are locked up, some of whom are then executed, as happened in 1988 in the mass executions ordered -or at least endorsed- by a commission that also included the current President Ebrahim Raisi.
Even before the Islamic Revolution, the prison was notorious for mistreatment and abuse, which worsened with the rise of the Ayatollahs. Activist groups such as Amnesty International have published numerous reports in recent years denouncing “whipping, mock executions, sexual violence, denial of medical treatment, torture such as ‘submarine’ and electric prods.” Prisoners are denied basic rights such as access to air, food, medical treatment and education, adequate lighting, and visits from relatives, including contact with lawyers.
In theory, the prison was supposed to house detainees awaiting trial, to be transferred to other facilities such as Ghezel Hesar or Gohardasht prison. However, Evin has become a kind of concentration camp where prisoners awaiting trial live and suffer for years before appearing in court. Although the prison can house a maximum of 3,000 detainees, there are 15,000 prisoners inside, divided into 12 overcrowded pavilions.
The most feared pavilions are under the control of the Guardians of the Revolution (Pasdaran) and the intelligence services: here the worst atrocities are committed against “special” prisoners who receive “special attention”.
a mysterious fire
In mid-October, there were hours of terror following a mysterious fire and eyewitness accounts of gunshots at Ervin jail. After an initial phase of confusion, the Tehran authorities imposed a strict censorship on the subject, blocking communications with the outside. According to the justice, the events culminated in eight deaths, four of them due to inhaling the noxious gases caused by the fire, and 61 injuries. The official version adds that the eight dead had been arrested and convicted of robbery, while the perpetrators of the incident were “hooligans”, whose names did not come out, who set fire “to a clothing store” inside the detention center. Violent clashes broke out between the prisoners themselves and later between prison guards and inmates who shouted “death to the dictator” and “death to Khamenei”, the supreme leader of Iran. However, the version does not convince the activists and the families of the detainees, starting with the number of deaths, which in reality would be much higher.
The Christian Activist Website Article18 collected testimonies that account for “shots”, videos of helmets of “bullets” and “explosions” in the prison. “It was a night from hell for us. We had no idea what was going on in there,” says a relative of one detainee. The next morning,” continued another source – anonymous for security reasons – “a relative called us to say he was fine. He added that most of the prisoners in pavilion 8 had helped put out the fire. [originado en el pabellón 7] with all the tools they could get, from sand buckets and containers to water hoses.
Steven Beck, an audio forensic expert and researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, analyzed the video footage provided by the Washington Post and found that over a hundred shots had been fired and that the sound was “consistent with an AK-47 [Kalashnikov]”, as well as with pistols and rifles. Two other explosions “coincide with the use of grenades”, a version confirmed by another weapons expert, Amael Kotlarski, according to whom stun grenades were fired inside the prison, while one of the fires were allegedly set intentionally while the inmates were still in their cells.
The authorities deployed security brigades, including Basij militias and special police units, to quell the riots using copious amounts of batons, live ammunition, metal pellets and explosives. In the case there are many elements that are still murky. Independent monitors and NGOs are calling for an “independent investigation” to determine the “egregious and illegal use of force” by the security brigades. However, the fear -or the certainty- is that this case will also be absorbed by the “black hole” that is Erbin.
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