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EIGHT IRANIAN INMATES died in a fire that raged through Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, the judiciary said today, doubling the official toll from the blaze that further stoked tensions one month into protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
Authorities in the Islamic republic have blamed the fire late Saturday on “riots and clashes” among prisoners, but human rights groups said they doubted the official version of events and also feared the real toll could be even higher.
The judiciary authority’s website Mizan Online said today that four Evin prison inmates injured in the fire had died in hospital, after reporting the previous day an initial toll of four dead from smoke inhalation.
Gunshots and explosions were heard during the dramatic blaze from inside the complex as flames lit up the night sky and smoke billowed from the building, in video footage posted on social media channels.
The Iranian authorities have accused “thugs” of torching a prison clothing depot and reported clashes between prisoners, and then between inmates and guards who intervened to put an end to the violence.
Hundreds of the protesters arrested in recent weeks have been sent to Evin, infamous for the ill-treatment of political prisoners, which also holds foreign detainees and thousands jailed on criminal charges.
The official IRNA news agency, citing a Tehran prosecutor, said the clashes had “nothing to do with the recent unrest in the country”, while Mizan said that all those who died had been convicted of robbery.
But Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it “rejects” the official account, given the “long history of concealing facts” in the Islamic republic.
It said it had “received reports that special forces were deployed to incite prisoners and set the grounds for a crackdown” and called for a UN-backed international investigation to establish the facts.
Prisoners’ relatives and rights groups have voiced grave fears for the inmates and said Iranian security forces had used tear gas inside the correctional facility.
The fire came after four weeks of protests over the death of 22-year-old Amini, following her arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
The wave of demonstrations has turned into a major anti-government movement, confronting Iran’s clerical leadership with one of its biggest challenges since the ousting of the shah in 1979.
More protests were held yesterday, including at the Tehran and Shariati universities where women chanted “we are all Mahsa!”, followed by more overnight rallies in some other areas of the capital.
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 facility.
She said some prisoners in Ward 8, which houses political detainees, had been transferred to another jail.
IHR reported that inmates’ relatives gathered outside Evin on Sunday, seeking information about their loved ones.
Activists noted further confusion when state television announced yesterday that 40 people had been killed, only to correct this back to the initial toll of four just minutes later.
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.
US attorney Jared Genser said he had spoken to his family, and that he was unharmed.
France said it was following “with the greatest attention” the situation of its citizens “arbitrarily detained” in Evin.
Supporters of Austrian prisoner Massud Mossaheb said he was suffering after inhaling smoke and tear gas, writing on Twitter that “he can barely speak… He is in big distress”.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc expected “maximum transparency on the situation” at Evin.
The EU has agreed to level new sanctions, a move expected to be endorsed by foreign ministers today.
At least 108 people have been killed by security forces in the crackdown on the Amini protests, and at least 93 more died in separate clashes in Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan province, according to IHR.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on yesterday accused US President Joe Biden of “inciting chaos” after Biden expressed support for the protests, while the head of the Revolutionary Guards accused the West of a cultural “invasion” of Iranian schools.
“The riots are a path that has come from strategic think tanks in America and England which has spread to our classrooms,” the Guards’ Sepah News website quoted Major General Hossein Salami as saying.
The crackdown has seen the arrest of hundreds of ordinary protesters and also dozens of civil society figures, including journalists, filmmakers and even athletes.
Prominent Iranian lawyer Saeid Dehghan wrote on Twitter that a total of 19 lawyers who had been working to defend those arrested had themselves been detained.
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Please support your local farmers over the large retailers
@A2 Poster: Thats a bit like saying please support your local corner shop. That did not work out well for well established reasons..
Larry Goodman and his likes have the government and big business in their pocket. It’s just going to take a lot more protests and the possibility of slurry pumped into Dáil Éireann although it’s full of slurry already.
@Bull McCabe: I’d have more support for your cause Bull if I could stroll down an auld river near yerself and catch a few trout without the likes of you telling me that this you’re land and dont let me see the likes of you here again. Just saying.
@Clint Sofie: Until something happens and the farmer ends up in court being sued.
And then you have the odd idiot leaving gates open, damaging fences, littering.
Add that to the rural crime wave of machinery and tools and you can’t fault the farmers for not being too happy with finding you on their land without their permission.
It doesn’t hurt to ask.
@Mill Lane: Dont think that asking Benjy for permission to stand at a hole of water for an hour or so is going to convert him to let the tax payer who pays his grants catch a few fish, with the greatest of respect ,MILL.
@Clint Sofie: And that’s the difference between thinking and doing….you won’t catch too many fish by thinking.
@Mill Lane: Give it up Mill, it is well known that farmers have killed over a half acre of land. THIS IS MINE AND NOBODY WILL CROSS THAT LITTLE PIECE OF GRASS, SO THERE.
@Clint Sofie: Well if you have such a low opinion of them… don’t go onto their land or buy a boat.
Simple really.
@Clint Sofie: And I’m sure you won’t mind if Bull and myself slip around into your back garden and enjoy an hour lying out in the sun. Just saying like….
@Molly1952: You would be very welcome and I would hope that you would also bring your family’s as well. My land is open to all.
@Clint Sofie: Oh and by the way, we will all end up with 6 foot of grass at the end of the day, no matter how much ya may crave for more of it wright now. The best of luck lads. We will all end up in the same place at the end of it all.
@Clint Sofie: Have to agree with you on that one…
@Molly1952: Good night Molly, or should I say good morning. Cheers.
How the government can’t make the retailers show up and yet they are the ones with the biggest mark up is beyond me
@Garreth Mc Mahon: the retailers are in the UK and other far flung places. 95% is exported. Irish retailers paying more would only be a drop in the bucket
Should banned import beef from South America & North America and need support Irish farmer
And for every €10 you spend on cow meat, you are directly supporting the slaughter of animals.
@Louise: thanks for that
@Louise: and for every €10 you spend on carrots you support the slaughter of innocent vegetables.
@Bull McCabe: and you are denying rabbits their staple diet.
@Louise: As a “normal” vegetarian I really do wish others would stop making stupid statements like this.
People have a fair idea the beef on their plate has been to the slaughter house, they don’t need to be told as they are not stupid.
Our meat free diets are probably no better for the environment, monoculture, pesticides, more diesel, more air miles ect. ect.
Choosing not to eat meat doesn’t give us the right to lecture people and those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
@Louise: The animals wouldnt exist if they weren’t there for meat. Who do you think is going to feed and house a herd of cattle or pigs for pets??
@Molly1952: Thats grand Molly and you are doing the animals a favour? are ya sure that the animals are not doing YOU, a favour.
@the journal. Please fix bugs for iPhone that makes your comment post twice because you have to repost to get it on comments
How the government can’t make the retailers show up and yet they are the ones with the biggest percentage in the price is beyond me
@Garreth Mc Mahon: free trade “”
@Garreth Mc Mahon: Coz they are busy taking care of business servicing customers, its a talk shop.
That top poster is wrong. The retailer gets €3.30 out of every €10 of meat.
They are now looking for a €1Billion Brexit fund. Have they all lost the plot. For those who don’t know what €1Billion looks like, here it is. €1,000,000,000.
@John Hanrahan: too many farmers in this country. If they can’t compete, let them go bust. All the subsidies we give them outweigh the cost of ‘buying Irish’
So where have they published the figures for the claims they are making?
@Darren Byrne: The poster with the prices? I’m sure if it was wrong, the big retailers would have no problem coming out and saying so. But they are cowering away from it because they know it’s true.
Btw, beefplan has suicide prevention phone numbers and coping with depression numbers up on their website. This is a really serious issue for rural people, please don’t doubt them for no reason. It’s their industry, they know it, they know the figures. They shouldn’t have to prove that they aren’t dishonest.
@A2 Poster: I have no doubt that some of them are finding things hard. I have seen other people operate businesses and fail where others then follow and succeed. But my issue is when someone makes claims that just aren’t backed up by figures. Secondly they don’t say how much it costs them to produce that beef that they’re only getting 2 for every 10 spent.
Whats the average turnover/profit of a beef farm anyone?
@Thomas Maher: I would say it relies on economies of scale. The guy who started this only has 100 head of cattle. I’d imagine costs would be much less pro rata if you had 1000 head of cattle.
@Thomas Maher: last year I think teagasc stated it was 6000 € profit Including single farm payment. At the price it is this year I’d image the factory is after taking all the single farm payment and probably some of the off farm income as well
The Irish state and the EU appear to be determined to wipe out rural Ireland!
have your say