Iran prison fire: 4 killed, 61 injured as protests continue

GBNEWS24DESK//

A fire at Iran’s Evin prison late on Saturday killed four detainees and injured 61, state media reported, as anti-government protests sparked by a woman’s death in police custody continued on Sunday, including at several universities.

Iranian authorities said on Saturday that a prison workshop had been set on fire “after a fight among a number of prisoners convicted of financial crimes and theft”. Evin holds many detainees facing security charges, including Iranians with dual nationality.

Iran’s judiciary said four of those injured in Saturday’s fire were in critical condition and that those killed had died of smoke inhalation, Iranian state media reported.

Earlier state television aired video apparently showing that calm had returned to the facility.

The protests sparked by 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s death while in the custody of Iran’s morality police on Sept. 16 have turned into one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution, and have been met with a brutal state crackdown.

Rights groups say at least 240 protesters have been killed, including 32 minors. The authorities have not published a death toll.

Protests continued at several universities on Sunday, including in the cities of Tabriz and Rasht, to a heavy deployment of riot police. Videos posted on social media showed students at a Tehran university chanting: “Iran has turned into a big prison. Evin prison has become a slaughterhouse.”

Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

Families of some political detainees at Evin prison took to social media to call on the authorities to ensure their safety, which in 2018 was blacklisted by the U.S. government for “serious human rights abuses”.

Footage of the prison aired on state television hours later showed firefighters inspecting a workshop with fire damage to the roof. It also showed inmates asleep in their wards.

Atena Daemi, a human rights activist, said that relatives of prisoners held in the women’s section had gathered at the prison for routine visiting hours, but that the authorities had denied them access, resulting in a standoff.