As protests in Iran continue, clashes and fires have broken out at a Tehran prison notorious for abuse of political prisoners. A video released by the human rights group Iran Human Rights showed flames and a cloud of smoke over Ewin prison in the Iranian capital on Saturday night and shots were reported. “Death to the dictator” was shouted in the background of the video.
The prison is reportedly holding hundreds of people arrested during months of human and civil rights protests. Several foreigners are also being detained. Every day dozens of people stand in front of the prison looking for relatives and relatives.
“A fire is spreading in Ewin prison,” said the 1500tasvir Twitter channel, which regularly reports on the protests and police brutality in Iran. There was also an explosion. Shots were also heard on video footage.
Confused situation
State news agency IRNA reported “riots and skirmishes” in the prison. Riots had started a fight with prison staff and set the detention center’s textile warehouse on fire. However, the situation is “completely under control” again and “calm has returned” to the detention center. At least eight people were injured, according to the report.
Iran has been rocked by violent protests for weeks. They were triggered by the death of the young Kurd Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old died in Tehran on September 16 after being arrested by vice squad three days earlier on charges of not wearing her headscarf in accordance with regulations.
Several aliens are also being held in Ewin prison. Responding to reports of the unrest and fire, the family of US citizen Siamak Namazi said they were “deeply concerned” and had not heard from Namazi. The sister of another US citizen who was being held in prison wrote on Twitter that she was “sick with worry”.
A US State Department spokesman said Washington was following the incident closely. Iran is “fully responsible for the safety of our illegally detained citizens”.
women without a headscarf
“Guns are fired as Ewin burns,” researcher Roham Alvandi of the London School of Economics wrote on Twitter. “If political prisoners die there, it will be an incident on the scale of the ‘Cinema Rex’ fire in Abadan in August 1978, which hastened the overthrow of the Shah.”
About 400 people were killed in an arson attack on the “Cinema Rex”. The incident on the eve of the Iranian revolution sparked protests against the Shah, although the background of the attack has never been clarified.
Protests in Iran continued on Saturday. During a demonstration at Shariati University in the capital Tehran, women without headscarves shouted slogans such as “The mullahs must go!”, according to a video circulated on the internet. Other protests came from Isfahan and Kermanshah, among others.
According to 1500tasvir, young women at a university in Tehran shouted “freedom, freedom, freedom” while waving their headscarves in the air. The Twitter channel also reported on strikers in Kurdistan province and West Azerbaijan.
Due to the violent crackdown on demonstrators in Iran, the EU countries had agreed on new sanctions against Tehran. According to diplomatic circles, EU foreign ministers will officially decide on the sanctions on Monday at a meeting in Luxembourg. (AFP/kes)