Prisoners held at Evin Prison are subject to brutal tactics inflicted by prison authorities, including sexual assaults, physical assaults, and electric shock. Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) maintain permanent wards in Evin Prison where they hold political prisoners.
What happens in Iran's Evin Prison?
They were reportedly housed in Tehran's Evin Prison. The high-security facility is known for holding foreign prisoners, as well as political dissidents and intellectuals. Former detainees describe being marched around in blindfolds, forced to eat rocks and dirt, and prevented from sleeping in cramped solitary confinement cells.
How are foreigners treated in Iran’s prisons?
Mr Taheri said prison conditions, torture methods and treatment can vary greatly from prison to prison and by which security agency controls it, but most foreigners are transferred to the capital.
What's it like to be held in Iran's Guantanamo Bay prison?
It also holds Iranian intellectuals and activists who have been critical of the regime. Conditions inside the prison appear to be horrific. Former detainees have said they were repeatedly threatened with dismemberment and death, were forced to eat rocks and dirt, and slept on hard floors surrounded by cockroaches.
How many prisoners have escaped Evin Prison?
Countless numbers have been driven insane by this treatment, many smashing their heads against the wall of their cell in anguish, while others have attempted suicide, but such is the security at Evin, no prisoner has been known to have escaped.
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How does Iran treat prisoners?
Under international human rights law, Iran is obligated to ensure that all persons deprived of their liberty are treated with humanity and respect. Moreover, no one may be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Who built Evin prison?
of Mohammad Reza PahlaviEvin Prison was constructed in 1972 under the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It is located at the foot of the Alborz mountains on the former home of Ziaeddin Tabatabaee, who briefly served as prime minister in the 1920s. Iran's judicial system is based on Islamic law, or sharia.
Do jails have solitary confinement?
United States. In the United States penal system, more than 20 percent of state and federal prison inmates and 18 percent of local jail inmates are kept in solitary confinement or another form of restrictive housing at some point during their imprisonment.
How many political prisoners are in Saudi Arabia?
It is unclear how many political prisoners are incarcerated in Saudi prisons. The Saudi government claims the number is zero but human rights activists speak of hundreds. Amnesty International has reported that it suspects there may be around 3,000 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia.
How many prisons does Iran have?
IranPrison population total (including pre-trial detainees / remand prisoners)189 000 at 1.1.2020 (national report to U.N. Human Rights Council)Number of establishments / institutions253 (2014)Official capacity of prison systemc. 150 000 (2018)Occupancy level (based on official capacity)c. 153.0% (2018)5 more rows
Who is in prison in Iran?
U.S. citizensNameDetainedDays in detentionEmad Shargi30 November 2020558Michael WhiteJuly 2018~1441Morad TahbazJanuary 2018~1622Xiyue Wang8 August 2016121625 more rows
Can you sleep all day in solitary confinement?
The answer to this is a straight no, regardless of the prison. Sleeping the whole day is not an option. To begin with, in between the day, there are count times which you should be present. Each prison has a minimum of 5 count times daily.
How long does it take to go crazy in solitary confinement?
Just 15 days locked up in solitary can be enough to cause permanent psychological damage – with effects ranging from anxiety to paranoia to inability to form coherent thoughts. The effects are even worse when inmates in solitary are already mentally ill.
What happens to your brain in solitary confinement?
People who experience solitary confinement are more likely to develop anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and psychosis. The practice also affects physical health, increasing a person's risk for a range of conditions, including fractures, vision loss, and chronic pain.
How does Saudi Arabia punish criminals?
Criminal law punishments in Saudi Arabia include public beheading, stoning, amputation and lashing. Serious criminal offences include not only internationally recognized crimes such as murder, rape, theft and robbery, but also apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery.
What is the death penalty in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia has a criminal justice system based on a form of Shari'ah reflecting a particular state-sanctioned interpretation of Islam. Execution is usually carried out by beheading with a sword but may occasionally be performed by shooting.
What are prisons like in Saudi Arabia?
"Reports from individuals released from Saudi detention facilities reveal that there is chronic overcrowding, poor sanitation and hygiene, extremely limited access to healthcare, visitation and communication with the outside world — including legal representatives.
How many people are in Evin prison?
With a capacity now detaining 15,000 people, the Evin Prison has built a reputation of Iran’s rampant political repression.
Where is the torture room in the prison?
The torture room is located in the ward’s basement where there are all kinds of medieval equipment for torture, including Apolo (a special bed for giving electric shocks to the prisoner while his head is covered by an iron helmet where his cries echo into his own ears), wired beds for flogging with cables, hangers from which prisoners are hanged from the ceiling by foot or by hands as they are tied behind their backs.
What were prison officials responsible for?
In some cases, prison officials had also violated prisoners’ rights to health, or were responsible for torture or other ill-treatment. In several cases, they withheld medication from political prisoners or unnecessarily used restraints such as handcuffs and leg shackles on political prisoners, interfering with their medical treatment, bruising theirs hands and feet or causing them discomfort and humiliation.
Why do prisoners buy food from prisons?
Most of the prisoners believe that the low quality and hygiene of food in prison , is deliberate to make prisoners buy from prison’s shops where All food items are sold above market prices.
What does a prison psychologist prescribe?
Prisoners say that the prison psychologist prescribes neurological drugs to many prisoners without any medical grounds.
Why do prisons threaten to hold prisoners in solitary confinement?
A source close to one of the prisoners said the prison’s management threatens prisoners of holding them in solitary confinement if they object to the lack of food or to the prison’s bad conditions.
How long can a prisoner communicate with a family member?
Prisoners can only communicate with first-degree family members for twenty minutes via a cabin meeting. A cabin meeting is a visit through a dirty and blurry window and through a headset that is controlled by prison authorities.
How many prisoners were killed in Iran in 1988?
Under the pressure of the rising tide of protests against the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in summer 1988 in Iran and a growing call for the prosecution of the perpetrators of this crime against humanity,
Who wrote an open letter to the ambassadors of 45 foreign countries who went on a guided tour to Evin Prison?
Political prisoners Atena Daemi and Golrokh Iraee wrote an open letter to the ambassadors of 45 foreign countries who went on a guided tour to Evin Prison on July 5, 2014.
The structure of prison wards
Evin Prison is a vast complex that consists of multiple buildings, generally up to three floors high with two sections on each floor.
Nutritional status
Reports indicate food comes in meagre portions and is barely edible. It is so little that hungry inmates are forced to collect the residue of other food trays as well as the food which was left on the ground. That small amount of the food distributed in prison is sometimes rotten and expired.
Medical condition
Medical treatment withheld to punish prisoners or force them into making false confessions is a common place.
Inspections and threats
Up to 50 prison agents periodically search prisoners’ cells. All the prisoners are required to go to the prison courtyard during the search. The agents confiscate and “steal” the prisoners’ belongings during the search.
Prison visitations
There are no criteria or standards for prisoners’ visitation rights in the notorious Evin prisons. Family visits and phone calls are used as a tool by prison authorities to exert more pressure on the prisoners.
How many people are in Evin Prison?
Standing at the foot of the Alborz Mountains, it is home to an estimated 15,000 inmates, including killers, thieves and rapists. But the prison has also held ayatollahs, journalists, intellectuals and dissidents over the years, and few if any who have survived time in Evin could be surprised by claims of torture and abuse made by Abedini's ...
What was the most harrowing experience Nemat went through at Evin?
But the most harrowing experience Nemat went through at Evin came when jailers blindfolded her and led her out of a cell and down a corridor. When the blindfold was removed, she was facing a firing squad. As she waited for the cluster of rifle reports that would end her life, a guard pulled her away.
What prison is Pastor Abedini in?
Inside Iran’s brutal Evin Prison. Perry Chiaramonte speaks to Evin prisoners and discusses the fate of Pastor Abedini who may spend the next eight years there. It is known as Evin University, but it's no school -- it is one of the world's most brutal and infamous prisons. And barring intervention by Iran's religious leaders, ...
How long did Nemat stay in prison?
Nemat spent three years at Evin before getting a new trial, where her sentence was reduced to time served. Although she and countless other inmates at Evin never were told what their supposed crimes were, the charge of compromising national security is the typical catch-all. It is punishable by death.
How long was Abbas Sadeghi in prison?
Abbas Sadeghi was held for 40 days at Evin when he was accused in December 2010 of conspiring to overthrow the regime and for his involvement with the Elam ministry, an international Christian network that seeks to spread the Bible's message to Iranians and is known by the slogan "The love of Christ for Iran and beyond."
How long was Ali Golchin in prison?
He spent nearly three months locked up inside Evin prison.
How long was Nemat in solitary confinement?
Nemat survived and then endured six months of solitary confinement in Evin's 209 section, where cells typically had a toilet, a sink and no bed. “The cells were just large enough to lie down," she said. "When you lay down at night if you stretched out your arms, you could touch the walls.
What did the two political prisoners write to the Iranian ambassadors?
On July 5th, 2017 two political prisoners, Golrokh Iraee and Atena Daemi, wrote an open letter to these ambassadors, explaining the intolerable conditions of the rest of Evin prison. They pointed out the hypocrisy of Iranian officials in showing the delegation that particular ward, and told them of the terrible conditions of Iranian prisons. They wrote that ward four, where the delegation visited, was renovated by the prisoners, who were taken to solitary confinement on the day of the visit.
What did the new ward not depict?
They said that the new ward does not depict the actual conditions of the prisons, that the ambassadors were only shown what the Iranian officials wanted them to see. The true nature of the prison was hidden, and the world needs to see the inhumane conditions under which Iranian prisoners are kept.
When was Evin prison built?
Evin prison was built in 1971 under Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It housed political prisoners then and later, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution swept the shah from power.
Who was the Iranian President when the executions happened?
The account linked the timing of its leak to the recent election of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line acolyte of Khamenei involved in the execution of thousands in 1988 at the end of the Iran-Iraq War.
Where is the prison where Justice of Ali beats a prisoner?
In this frame grab taken from video shared with AP by 'The Justice of Ali,' a guard beats a prisoner, at Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. (The Justice of Ali via AP)
Does the video of the prisoner's house have sound?
Though there is no sound in the videos, they speak to the grim world faced by prisoners at the facility. One sequence shows what appears to be an emaciated man dumped from a car in the parking lot, then dragged through the prison. Another shows a cleric walking down the stairs and passing by the man, without stopping.
Do guards fight in prison?
Guards in another video are seen beating a man in a prisoner's uniform. One guard sucker-punches a prisoner in a holding cell. Guards also fight among themselves, as do the prisoners. Many are crammed into single-room cells. No one wears a facemask.
Was Iran's railroad system targeted?
In recent months, Iran's railroad system was targeted by an apparent cyberattack. Other self-described hacker groups have published details about Iranians alleging hacking on behalf of the theocracy. Meanwhile the most-famous cyberattack — the Stuxnet virus that destroyed Iranian centrifuges at the height of Western fears over Tehran's program — is widely suspected to have been an American and Israeli creation.
Why was an Iranian prisoner sentenced to five years?
This source brought up the case of another Iranian prisoner who had allegedly been given a five-year sentence for being in touch with people in Israel. This person had posted comments expressing sympathy for or interest in Israel on a Farsi-language website about Israel that had been set up by an Israeli NGO trying to reach out to regular Iranians.
When did Iranian women get detained?
Iranian women prisoners sit inside their cell in Tehran's Evin prison June 13, 2006. Iranian police detained 70 people at a demonstration in favor of women's rights, the judiciary said on Tuesday, adding it was ready to review reports that the police had beaten some demonstrators. (REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl)
What was the third case that Fox News reported?
A third case brought to the attention of Fox News involved an Iranian prisoner who had been convicted of spying for the Mossad along with their partner, who successfully fled Iran before the prisoner was arrested . This prisoner allegedly owned an apartment in Tel Aviv and had visited Israel on a number of occasions.
Why did the prisoner even hoped Israel would grant them asylum after their release?
According to the source, "The prisoner even hoped Israel would grant them asylum after their release, because they went to jail for Israel."
Is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization?
The Trump administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and that classification remains in force. The Guards have been responsible for the murders of hundreds of Americans in the Middle East.
Did Erdogan betray Israel?
It was not the first time Erdogan betrayed Israel. In 2013, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported that Erdogan "is said to have disclosed to Iranian intelligence the identities of up to 10 Iranians who had been meeting inside Turkey with their Mossad case officers.".
What is the Evin prison?
Evin prison has became synonymous with torture and death, with thousands of reported hangings, the disappearance of numerous political detainees and an "appalling level of brutality" as detailed in reports by Amnesty International. Former detainees described walls topped with barbed wire, windowless cells, air that reeked ...
Who described cases where prisoners were blindfolded and made to sit on the floor in silence for hours before guards?
Mr Taheri described cases where prisoners were blindfolded and made to sit on the floor in silence for hours before guards would suddenly begin "screaming vulgar sexual terms against them or their relatives".
How long was Jason Rezaian in jail?
He was held for 544 days on charges of espionage. Mr Rezaian said most of the foreigners were held in "very severe isolation away from the general prison population".
Why was Rezaian released?
Mr Rezaian was one of four American prisoners released ahead of the Iran nuclear deal, which was to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions on Iran. Mr Rezaian said securing the Australians' release won't be an easy task.
What charge is foreigners tried on?
Activists say foreigners are usually tried on the "ambiguous" charge of espionage
Where are foreigners held in isolation?
In Tehran's Evin prison, most foreigners are held in isolation away from the general prison population . ( Reuters) Former inmates have described being subjected to mock executions, beatings and psychological "torture" in the notorious prison where three Australians are being held.
Who urged all Australian citizens to put "maximum pressure" on the Government to hold Iran accountable for these de?
Mr Taheri urged all Australian citizens to put "maximum pressure" on the Government to hold Iran accountable for these detentions.
Who is in the Iran prison?
The prison is notorious for housing several foreign and dual nationals including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, his wife Yeganeh Salehi, and the British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. It also holds Iranian intellectuals and activists who have been critical of the regime.
Where is Evin Prison?
Inside Evin Prison, Tehran. Former prisoners described being "unable to see anything outside their cells or hear anything besides the sounds of their own voices" in the prison's Ward 240, which houses 700 to 800 solitary confinement cells, the Home Office reported.
How many days did Matthew Trevithick spend in jail?
This is also how Matthew Trevithick, an American student who spent 41 days in the jail in 2015, described it to PBS NewsHour.
Why did the guards cut off Rezaian's wife?
Prison guards threatened to cut off the right arm and left leg or left arm and right leg of Rezaian's wife Yeganeh, or kill her family, in order to get her to provide incriminating information about Rezaian, according to the family's lawsuit.
Why were prisoners hungry?
Meals were often inadequate and had low nutritional value, which left the prisoners constantly hungry, according to Rezaian's lawsuit, Fox News, and a 2016 report by the UK Home Office.
How many people are in Iran's prison?
The prison holds an estimated 15,000 people. It's housed so many Iranian intellectuals that it's been nicknamed "Evin University."
Was Jason Rezaian blindfolded?
Jason Rezaian also said in his family's lawsuit against the Iranian government that he was blindfolded when moved around the prison, even during his daily, 20-minute walks early into his detention.
The Structure of Prison Wards
Nutritional Status
- Reports indicate foodcomes in meagre portions and is barely edible. It is so little that hungry inmates are forced tocollect the residue of other food trays as well as the food which was left onthe ground. That small amount of the food distributed in prison is sometimesrotten and expired. Prisoners have to buy at their own expense their needed dairy products, vegetables, frui…
Medical Condition
- Medical treatmentwithheld to punish prisoners or force them into making false confessions is acommon place. Prison authorities callouslydeny prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners adequate medicalcare, putting them at grave risk of death. The Office of theProsecutor, which is responsible for decisions concerning medical leave andhospital transfers often refuse…
Evin Prison’S Clinic
- A number of prisonerssuffering from AIDS are detained in Section 7. Medical attention is barelygiven to prisoners in this section. Only when prisoners go on hunger strike orwhen media attention is given to them are they taken to hospital for treatment. Prisoners say that theprison psychologist prescribes neurological drugs to many prisoners without...
Evin Prison’S Store
- Prisonstore is a part of the jail’s own perverse economic system. Prison officialsmake a profit from selling the essential needs of prisoners such as soap, shampoo, even food. Prisoners’ families mustprovide the cash they need for day-to-day life. Those without support live inthe lowest circle of misery on meagre and substandard prison supplies. Mostof the prisoners believ…
Inspections and Threats
- Up to 50 prison agents periodicallysearch prisoners’ cells. All the prisoners are required to go to the prisoncourtyard during the search. The agents confiscate and “steal” the prisoners’belongings during the search. After each inspection, many of theprisoners’ equipment disappears and a large amount of their food is destroyed. Prison authorities in various ways sellsecond hand phones an…
Prison Visitations
- There are no criteria or standards forprisoners’ visitation rights in the notorious Evin prisons. Family visits andphone calls are used as a tool by prison authorities to exert more pressure onthe prisoners. Political prisoners and prisoners of consciencewho are routinely harassed by the authorities have greatly limited visits. Sometimes, visitations and telephonecalls are denied to p…