Iran: At least four inmates were killed and 61 others injured after a fire broke out in Tehran’s Evin prison overnight following a fight between inmates, the official state news agency IRNA reported, citing the judiciary there.
Smoke inhalation was said to be the cause of death, IRNA reported on Sunday, adding that 10 prisoners were hospitalized and four were in “critical condition”.
The facility mostly houses political prisoners, including Iranians with dual nationality. The families of about two dozen political prisoners called to say they were safe, according to their social media accounts.
The prison has long been criticized by human rights groups and was blacklisted by the United States government in 2018 for “serious human rights violations”.
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The incident came as nationwide protests against the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, entered their fifth week in custody.
The protests represent one of the most serious challenges to Iran’s government since the 1979 revolution, with demonstrations spreading across the country and some people chanting slogans against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
State television broadcast footage of the aftermath of the fire on Sunday, showing charred walls and ceilings in a room said to be on the top floor of the prison’s sewing workshop. Tehran Prosecutor Ali Salehi said the prison riot was unrelated to nationwide protests and the situation was calm after the incident.
The fire started at about 10:30 p.m. (18:30 GMT), Al Jazeera’s Resul Sardar said, adding that different units of the prison were involved.
“Officials here say that there were clashes between prisoners and that some of these prisoners set fire to a warehouse in the prison’s sewing workshop,” Sardar said, referring to a statement made earlier by Tehran Governor Mohsen Mansouri.
“However, some witnesses claim that some Molotov cocktails were thrown into the prison, which started the fire. Right after that, we saw the security forces firing and also the use of tear gas to disperse the people,” he added.
A witness contacted by the Reuters news agency said roads leading to Evin prison were closed to traffic. “There are a lot of ambulances here,” he said. Another witness said the families of the prisoners had gathered outside the main entrance of the prison. “I see fire and smoke. A lot of special forces,” the witness said.
A security official said calm had been restored at the prison, while IRNA said “the situation is currently completely under control”. But the first witness told Reuters that ambulance sirens could be heard and smoke was still rising above the prison.
Early Sunday morning, IRNA carried a video showing parts of the prison damaged by the fire. Firefighters were seen dousing the wreckage with water, apparently to prevent the fire from re-igniting.
‘Numb with worry’
Among those detained are French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and US citizen Siamak Namazi, whose family said he was taken back into custody this week after a temporary release.
Responding to news of the fire, Namazi’s family said in a statement to the AFP news agency shared by their lawyer that they were “deeply concerned” and had not heard from him.
They urged the Iranian authorities to give him “immediate” means to contact his family and give him leave “as he is clearly not safe in Evin prison”.
The sister of another US citizen detained in Evin, businessman Emad Shargi, said on Twitter that his family was “numb with worry”.
An unnamed Iranian official told Tasnim news agency that none of the political prisoners were involved in Saturday’s unrest.
“No security inmate was involved in today’s inmate clash and the ward for security inmates is essentially separate and away from the ward for thieves and people convicted of financial offences,” the official said.
US President Joe Biden told reporters during a campaign trip to Portland, Oregon, when asked about the prison fire: “The Iranian government is so oppressive.
He said he was surprised by the “courage of the men and women taking [to] the streets” in the recent protests and had enormous respect for them. “It was really amazing,” he added. “They are not a good group in government.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Twitter: “We are urgently following the news from Evin Prison. We are in contact with the Swiss as our protective force. Iran is fully responsible for the safety of our wrongfully detained citizens who should be released immediately.
Human Rights Watch has accused prison authorities of using threats of torture and indefinite imprisonment, as well as lengthy interrogations and denial of medical care to detainees.
The protests erupted after the death of Amini on September 16, who was arrested by Iran’s morality police for wearing an inappropriate hijab. She died in custody. The coroner’s report said she had suffered no injuries to her head or vital organs.
Amini’s family refuted official accounts which attributed the 22-year-old’s death to conditions arising from brain tumor surgery at the age of eight.
Although the unrest does not appear to be close to toppling the government, the protests have spread into strikes that have shut down shops and businesses, affected the vital energy sector and inspired brazen acts of dissent against Iran’s religious government.
On Saturday, protesters across Iran chanted in the streets and universities against the country’s religious leaders.
A video released by the Norwegian organization Iran Human Rights purported to show protests in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Iran’s second most populous city, where protesters chanted “Clerics, get lost” and drivers honked their horns.
Videos released by the group show a strike by traders in the northwestern Kurdish town of Saqez – Amini’s hometown. Another video on social media showed high school girls chanting “Woman, Life, Freedom” in the streets of Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province.
The authenticity of the videos could not be immediately verified.
Iran’s activist news agency HRANA reported online that 240 protesters, including 32 minors, had been killed in the unrest. In protests in 111 cities and about 73 universities, 26 members of the security forces were killed and nearly 8,000 people were arrested.
But the official death toll is much lower than human rights organizations and protesters estimate.
Among the victims are teenage girls, whose deaths have become a rallying cry for further demonstrations demanding the fall of the Iranian government.
Demonstrators called for demonstrations in the northwestern city of Ardabil on Saturday over the death of Asr Panahi, an ethnic Azeri teenager who activists say was beaten to death by security forces.
Officials denied the report and news agencies close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps quoted her uncle as saying the high school student had died of a heart problem.