Four inmates were killed and 61 others injured after a fire broke out Saturday night at Tehran’s Evin prison, the judiciary said on Sunday.
The tragedy comes as a wave of protests has rocked Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who died on September 16, three days after she was detained by deputy police for, they say, , violates the Islamic Republic’s dress code for women, including the wearing of the veil.
“Four prisoners died from smoke inhalation caused by the fire and 61 others were injured,” said Mizan Online, the Iranian justice website.
The detainees who died “were jailed in Evin after being convicted of robbery,” it said.
four seriously injured
Images released on local media showed huge flames and thick smoke rising from the prison in the north of the Iranian capital at night.
“Only ten injured people are hospitalized,” the same source said, adding that four of them were in “serious condition.”
The authorities, who said they had controlled the fire, spoke of “confrontations” in the prison on Saturday night and accused “thugs of having set fire to a clothing store,” the official Irna agency reported.
There is no link with the protests in the country, says official agency
The prison riots “have nothing to do” with the protests in the country, he said.
It is in the Evin prison where several people arrested during the protest movement are detained, as well as foreigners or dual nationals such as the French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah imprisoned in the women’s section. There is also the American Siamak Namazi, who was imprisoned again this week after a temporary release, according to his family.
The famous Iranian director Jafar Panahi, winner of several international awards, and the reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh are also believed to be housed in this prison.
Source: BFM TV
