Four inmates died and 61 others were injured after a fire broke out Saturday evening in Evin prison in Tehran, the Judiciary website said on Sunday. The incident comes as a wave of protests has rocked Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who died on September 16, three days after she was arrested by vice squad for allegedly , violates the dress code of the Islamic Republic for women, including the wearing of the veil.
Four injured in “serious condition”
“Four prisoners died due to smoke inhalation caused by the fire and 61 others were injured,” said Mizan Online, the Iranian justice website. The detainees who died “were imprisoned in Evin after being convicted of theft”, he said. Images broadcast on local media showed huge flames and thick smoke emerging from the prison in the north of the Iranian capital in the evening.
“Only ten injured people are hospitalized,” said the same source, adding that four of them were in “serious condition”. The authorities, who said they had brought the fire under control, spoke of “clashes” at the prison on Saturday evening and accused “thugs of having set fire to a clothing warehouse”, the official Irna agency reported. The unrest at the prison “has nothing to do” with the protests in the country, she said.
It is in Evin prison that several people arrested during the protest movement are detained, as well as foreigners or dual nationals such as the Franco-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 in this prison establishment. Citing a firefighter on the scene, Irna had reported on Saturday evening that eight people were injured in the fire.