25 August 2021
Following the hacking of CCTV cameras in Evin Prison by a group of hackers and the release of videos from inside the prison, the world has now obtained undeniable evidence of torture and inhuman and violent treatment of prisoners in the prisons of the Islamic regime. Mohammad Mehdi Haj Mohammadi, the head of the Prisons Organization in Iran, has not been able to resort to lies and denial in response to the release of these videos. He accepted responsibility for these inhumane behaviours and shamelessly apologized to the regime’s leader and the guards, not the prisoners! He apologized to the Supreme Leader and the prison guards because this document exposes the crimes against humanity committed by the government and the prison guards towards the prisoners. The crime against humanity has been going on for over four decades.
The regime in Iran has continually refused the request of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and other international human rights organisations to visit prisons in Iran. However, now that the CCTV cameras of Evin Prison have been hacked, the world has virtually entered the prisons of the Islamic regime and found out an example of the truth that we have been emphasizing for years. The scandal is so obvious that the head of the judiciary has ordered an investigation into the prison guards’ violent treatment of prisoners. Members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly have said that the “dignity of the system” has been called into question by the publication of these images!
In the published videos, we see scenes that break the heart of every human being. In one video, a person faints in what looks like a prison yard. After the prisoner, wearing a medical mask, fell to the ground, prison officials grabbed the person by the hands and dragged him to the ground. In the images taken from various cameras, it can be seen that this person is dragged on the ground for a while and is forcibly lifted up the stairs. In other images, a prisoner is also severely beaten by several police officers. In another video, a prisoner is beaten so badly that blood flows from his mouth. In another image, a prisoner commits suicide in protest of the harsh conditions of the prison. The scenes show even drug trafficking by prison officials.
For the people of Iran, who have experienced the crimes of the Islamic Republic for over 42 years, these images are by no means new. The importance of the published images is that it provides undeniable evidence to international institutions that can be used in the prosecution of the Islamic Republic. It also provides the Iranian people and the families of prisoners with clear pieces of evidence to intensify struggles and efforts to secure the release of prisoners and to end criminal treatment of prisoners by the regime. The images published so far show the treatment of none-political prisoners by the prison authorities of the Islamic regime.
Dealing with political prisoners, labour activists, environmental activists, women and children rights activists, bloggers, and protesters in the recent protests is not better. Let us not forget that Satar Beheshti, a worker, and blogger, was tortured so much by the FATA police [ Intelligent Service] in November 2012 that he was killed due to bleeding from his lungs, liver, kidneys, and cerebellum. At least five people were brutally tortured to death during the 2009 protests in Kahrizak Prison. Several prisoners were also killed in prison due to deprivation of medical attention and also as a result of being repeatedly beaten and tortured. In a recent case, Mr Alireza Shirmohammad Ali, a 21-year-old political prisoner in Tehran’s Fashafoyeh prison, was stabbed to death on June 10, 2009. And murdered. Ms. Niloufar Bayani, one of the jailed environmental activists in Evin Prison, has exposed, in several letters to various officials in the Islamic regime and also through her testimony in court about “the most severe mental and psychological torture, threats of physical torture and sexual threats” during at least “1200 hours. There are many more who have been subjected to torture.
The inhumane treatment of prisoners in the prisons of the Islamic regime is not accidental and is not limited to one or two people. People in Iran are facing systematic violence by the Islamic regime. It is obvious that the government, which killed 1,500 people during the protests over the high price of gasoline in November 1998, deals with the prisoners harshly. Amnesty International has released a report on 1 September 2020 entitled “Trampling Humanity” documenting widespread detention, disappearances, and torture following the November 1998 protests in Iran. That report sheds light on many aspects of reality about prisons. Amnesty International report states: “Child detention, beatings, forced stripping, sexual insults, spraying pepper spray on the genital area and causing electric shock to the testicles, hanging and holding in painful positions, induction of sensation “Suffocation with water, the threat of death and dramatic execution, the forced injection or ingestion of chemicals are among the tortures perpetrated by Iranian military agents.”
Based on recently released videos, as well as dozens of other credible reports, we urge the international human rights organizations not to be indifferent to these reports and to use international law against the Islamic regime and the perpetrators of the crime against humanity. These documents provide enough evidence for any decent persecutor who cares about human rights to open a criminal case against the Islamic Republic and its prison guards. At the same time, we call on all social activists and the families of all political prisoners, all the families that seek justice in Iran to take the initiative and file a criminal case against the Islamic regime and send it to international institutions against this unbridled crime in prisons and stand against these crimes.
While the trial of Hamid Nouri, one of the perpetrators of the horrific killings of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 is underway in Stockholm, the world is more prepared for an international action against the Islamic regime, due to the exposure of the regime’s severe and systematic human rights violations. We must work hard and put more pressure on the Islamic Republic.
Please see the following links for the above mentioned videos as well as ways to support political prisoners in Iran.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI) www.cfppi.org
Free Them Now -Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran (FTN) https://free-them-now.com/
International Committee Against Execution (ICAE)
https://noto-execution.blogspot.com/?m=1
How you can help:
- Let your friends know what is happening in prisons in Iran by sharing this statement
- Write to the UN Human Rights Council(UNHRC). UNHRC is holding 48th session from 13 September-8 October 2021. Send an email/Tweet to UNHRC via the addresses below. You can send the following demand:
“I/ my organisation urge UNHRC to use its power to investigate the crime against humanity committed by the Islamic regime in Iran”
Please see the following footages which show how prisoners are treated by the Islamic regime in Iran.
Amnesty International’s press release on recent published videos : https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/08/iran-leaked-video-footage-from-evin-prison-offers-rare-glimpse-of-cruelty-against-prisoners/
The following video is with English subtitles which was sent by the prisoner [ in the video] who has been under pressure by the prison authorities in Boushehr prison in Iran. He has self-harmed several times but the authorities continued their psychological torture and did not provide him with treatment.
