According to the Iranian judiciary, the fire was started by prisoners. Prison authorities spoke of a short-term riot. Gunshots are said to have been heard in Tehran.
Four people died and 61 were injured in the fire at Tehran’s Evin prison on Saturday night, state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday. According to the judiciary, a fire was set in a prison workshop “after a dispute between prisoners”. According to witnesses, shots were heard from the building in the Iranian capital. Evin is internationally known for the political prisoners held there and for the criticism of human rights groups.
Prison administration spoke of a short-term riot and said the situation was under control again. “Hooligans and rioters” also started an argument with prison guards and then started a fire in the textile warehouse. The Fire Department has already turned it off. According to IRNA, prisoners “who had been convicted of financial crimes and theft” were involved. The TASNIM news agency reported that those arrested for security crimes were not involved in the incident.
via PortalFamilies of detainees gathered in front of the building.
According to witnesses, the roads leading to the prison were cordoned off and ambulances and special forces could be seen. Gunshots could still be heard for some time and people could be seen on the roof of the detention center. The families of the detainees gathered in front of the building. “People in neighboring buildings are chanting ‘Tod Khamenei’ from their windows,” said another witness, referring to Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The daily newspaper “Shargh” had already reported on the incidents via Twitter. Among other things, a video was also distributed, but this cannot be verified. Meanwhile, anti-government protests continued unabated. In Evin Prison, in northern Tehran, there are not only numerous political prisoners, but also protesters who have been arrested for their participation in the system-critical protests of the past four weeks.
Demonstrations in German cities
The United States expressed concern about the dramatic situation. “We are following the reports of Ewin’s arrest with great urgency,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter Saturday (local time). “Iran bears full responsibility for the safety of our unjustly detained citizens, who must be released immediately.”
In the German cities of Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg, several people gathered for spontaneous demonstrations on Saturday night. According to police, smaller groups of people gathered in the capital in front of the Foreign Ministry and in front of the Iranian embassy. In Frankfurt, too, several people spontaneously gathered in front of the Iranian consulate general late in the evening. The protests were peaceful and silent. In Hamburg, the meeting lasted until the early hours of the morning. Participants were excited but remained peaceful, police said. They called for solidarity with the politically imprisoned in Iran.
The foreign-operated National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI/NWRI), also known as the People’s Mujahideen, issued a broadcast urging the people and youth of Tehran to rush to help families gathered in front of Evin Prison to save the lives of prisoners. The regime must be stopped from “butchering the prisoners”. The People’s Mujahideen said that UN and EU reactions are also needed.
Evin Prison fire damage. APA/AFP/IRNA/-Connection to protests not yet clear
Initially, it was unclear whether the riot was related to ongoing system-critical protests in the country. Despite the authorities’ crackdown on protesters and massive restrictions on internet access, large numbers of people took to the streets for the fifth consecutive week. At a rally at Shariati University in the capital, Tehran, women without headscarves chanted slogans such as “Mullahs must go!” a video posted online showed. There were more protests in Isfahan and Kermanshah.
“Freedom, Freedom, Freedom”
In the city of Hamedan, west of Tehran, projectiles were fired at security forces by a screaming and whistling crowd, footage verified by the AFP news agency showed. According to the online service 1500tasvir, young women at a university in Tehran chanted “freedom, freedom, freedom” as they waved their scarves in the air. The online channel, which documents protests and police attacks, also reported on strikes by shopkeepers in Kurdistan province and western Azerbaijan.
According to the Norwegian-based human rights organization Hengaw, schoolgirls from the village of Ney, in Mariwan province, started their protests by “setting fire and chanting anti-government slogans”. As reported by online monitor NetBlocks, protesters were seen in videos shared on Twitter on the streets of the northwestern city of Ardabil. Images distributed online also showed students demonstrating at universities in Tehran, Isfahan and Kermanshah.
Borrell called Iran’s foreign minister
In response to the protests, the Islamic Coordinating Council for Development called on the people of Iran to “express their revolutionary anger against troublemakers and troublemakers”. As a journalist from the newspaper “Shargh” reported, the “retirees” of the Revolutionary Guard were also invited to meet on Saturday because of the “currently delicate situation”.
According to IRNA, a commander at the meeting said three Basij militia members had been killed and 850 others were wounded since the protests began.
After a phone conversation with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter that the people of Iran have the right to “peacefully protest and defend fundamental rights”. . According to an official statement released on Saturday, Amir-Abdollahian on Friday recommended that Europeans “take a realistic approach to the issue”.
New EU sanctions against Iran
Because of the violent crackdown on protesters in Iran, EU countries agreed to new sanctions against Tehran on Wednesday. According to diplomatic circles, EU foreign ministers are expected to officially decide on punitive measures at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.
The protests in Iran were sparked by the death of the young Kurdish Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old died in Tehran on September 16 after being arrested three days earlier by the vice squad on charges of failing to wear a headscarf in accordance with regulations.
According to the Norway-based human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 108 people were killed in the protests, including 28 children.
(APA)