CNN
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A minimum of eight individuals had been injured in a hearth at Evin jail in northern Tehran, Iranian state media IRNA reported. A massive, darkish plume of smoke was seen billowing close to the jail in a number of movies on social media Saturday night time.
The hearth has been contained, and “peace is maintained,” the governor of Tehran, Mohsen Mansouri, instructed IRNA, including that the fireplace was began by prisoners. Tehran’s Evin Jail is a notoriously brutal facility the place the regime incarcerates political dissidents.
“Now the state of affairs of the jail is totally beneath management and peace is maintained within the jail advanced and the streets across the jail are being monitored and beneath management,” Mansouri stated.
An Iranian safety official stated “thugs” set fireplace to the warehouse of jail clothes, IRNA reported earlier.
Activist group 1500tasvir reported that in movies posted on social media, gunshots had been heard and Iranian particular forces had been seen heading to the world the place the jail is believed to be situated.
The Iranian official stated that the “rioters” had been separated from different prisoners and the opposite detainees have returned to their cells, IRNA reported.
CNN can’t independently confirm the state of affairs.
Amnesty Worldwide Secretary Normal Agnes Callamard responded on Twitter to the social media movies with a reminder to Iranian authorities of their “authorized obligation to respect and defend” the lives of prisoners following the fireplace.
Callamard famous the jail is “infamous” and retweeted a submit from journalist Jason Rezaian whose “544 Days” podcast recounts the time he spent incarcerated within the jail.
“Evin is not any strange jail. Lots of Iran’s greatest and brightest have spent lengthy stretches confined there, the place courageous men and women are denied their primary rights for talking reality to energy,” Rezaian wrote. “The regime is liable for what occurs to these inside proper now.”
Chatting with state broadcaster IRIB, Tehran’s prosecutor Ali Salehi stated the “battle” on the jail was not linked to the protests which have swept the nation following the loss of life of a younger girl in police custody.
In September, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after she was detained by the nation’s morality police for allegedly not carrying her hijab correctly. Iranian authorities have since unleashed a brutal crackdown on demonstrators, who’ve united round a spread of grievances with the nation’s authoritarian regime.
“At present’s battle of prisoners has nothing to do with the current riots, and mainly, the ward associated to safety prisoners is separate and distant from the prisons of thieves and monetary convicts the place the fireplace and battle befell,” Salehi stated.
In line with Tehran’s prosecutor, Wards 7 and eight had been overcrowded, and the primary difficulty was the fireplace – which he stated had been began by some prisoners. Each the jail and the encircling streets are beneath management now, he stated.
Witnesses beforehand stated that Iranian safety forces beat, shot and detained college students at Tehran’s Sharif College. Final month, practically two dozen youngsters had been killed in the course of the protests, in response to a report by Amnesty Worldwide.
A minimum of 23 youngsters – some as younger as 11 – had been killed by safety forces within the final 10 days of September alone, the report stated.
Earlier this week, an Iranian official additionally admitted that college college students collaborating in avenue protests are being detained and brought to psychiatric establishments.