Officials Say Death Toll From Iran Prison Fire Rose To Eight

Amid a nationwide uprising ignited by death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, the protest rallies started at several universities across the country Sunday morning with students at University of Tehran chanting, "Tehran has turned into a Prison, Evin has turned into Slaughterhouse." At least four people died Saturday evening as a large fire spread in Evin Prison while gunshots and blasts were heard.

"Another Cinema Rex Fire Happening. Enough Is Enough, People, Join Us," Tehran University students were heard chanting, referring to the deadly 1978 fire at Cinema Rex of Abadan in southern Iran which killed some 400 people and intensified the 1979 Revolution.

Students at Azad University of Karaj were chanting, "Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I Sacrifice My Life for Iran" during their rallies at the campus, in defiance of the authorities who have threatened students with expulsion if they continue their protests. 

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday that he is following evolving reports on the situation in Evin prison, noting that Iranian authorities are responsible for lives of all detainees, including human rights defenders and EU nationals.

Borrell said that he expressed his “most serious concern” to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, saying that the EU “expects maximum transparency on the situation.”

Echoing the sentiments, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, “The government of Iran bears responsibility for all those imprisoned in Tehran's Evin Prison, including many political prisoners and demonstrators.”

Protests were also reported at universities in the northeastern city of Bojnourd, the northern city of Babol, and several cities in the southwestern provinces of Khuzestan and Lorestan. Some clashes were also reported in the central city of Yazd, with a population known to be sympathetic to the Islamic Republic. 

Outraged by the death of a schoolgirl, citizens of the city of Ardabil also held protest rallies, which broke into clashes in some areas. 

School officials in Ardabil tried to force the students to sing the propaganda song “Hello Commander” in praise of Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei Wednesday, but when some students refused, government agents showed up, beating and assaulting the girls. One student, identified as Asra Panahi, reportedly died of her injuries at the hospital while another one is in critical condition.

Tehran was also the scene of sporadic clashes and demonstrations, with teargas and gunshots used to disperse the protests. 

According to videos on social media, a group of residents in Tehran's Ekbatan township held a protest march in the evening, with slogans likening Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to ISIS terrorists, while people residing in the Nazi Abad neighborhood clashed with security forces who tried to disperse their demonstration. 

An early and extended furlough to Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the sons of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been cited as evidence to support the conjecture. 

Yasser Hashemi Rafsanjani, the youngest son of the former president who for years was a kingmaker in the Islamic Republic, revealed the information about his brother’s unusual furlough in a Clubhouse discussion on Sunday. 

He said that his brother Mehdi – who is serving a 10-year sentence over financial corruption in Evin – was usually let out of the prison on Wednesdays on a two-day leave and had to be back in the prison on Fridays. But this week, he was sent home early and told not to come back until after Saturday, when the fire broke out in the prison.

This has added to speculation that the prison blaze might have been an intentional act by the government, although others believe it could have been a coincidence.

Sources in Tehran told Iran International Sunday morning that four of the inmates had been seen in body covers after the incident, a report later confirmed by Iran's judiciary. Over 60 inmates were also injured in the incident, four of them in critical condition. 

Human rights advocate and lawyer Mostafa Nili, in a tweet Sunday said some of the inmates have been removed from Ward Eight, where both political and financial prisoners are held. According to Nili and others, political prisoners in Ward Four were only affected by tear gas and none have been taken away.

According to a report by the Jerusalem Post on Sunday, plainclothes men with Lebanese-accented Arabic speakers were seen trying to help Iranian police, Revolutionary Guards, and Basij to suppress the protesters in various cities, including in the capital of Tehran. 

Videos of the Arabic-speaking individuals violently beating Iranian protesters have earlier surfaced on social media. Iran International cannot independently verify the authenticity of the claim.

However, earlier in October, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah promoted the Islamic Republic’s propaganda line, trying to deflect blame over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old whose death sparked the uprising. 

Referring to Amini’s death as a “vague incident,” Nasrallah -- whose militant movement was created by Iran in early 1980s and has been receiving money and weapons from Iran ever since, said her death was a plot to weaken the Islamic Republic and create regional tensions.

Hezbollah is also using all its propaganda tools to show support for the Islamic Republic and misrepresent the current nationwide protests in Iran, organizing rallies in support of the regime in Tehran with students from its private educational system – the Mahdi schools.

Condemning the violence in a statement on Sunday, the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, the body that has organized numerous nationwide protest rallies and strikes in the past few years, described the minister as an “incompetent and good-for-nothing element.” 

"Unfortunately, in the last week, we witnessed the brutal attack of security forces and plainclothes on educational centers in various cities of the country, including schools in Kordestan province, Gohardasht and Mehrshahr near the capital Tehran, Orumiyeh (Urmia) and Ardabil in northwestern Iran and the northern city of Rasht,” the statement read. “Creating terror, the security forces arrested several students and transferred them to unknown places," it added. 

The latest case was the attack on a school in Ardabil, where school officials tried to force the students to sing the propaganda song “Hello Commander” in praise of Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei, but when some students refused, government agents showed up, beating and assaulting the girls. One student, identified as Asra Panahi, reportedly died of her injuries at the hospital while another one is in critical condition. 

On Saturday, hardliner news agencies published a video of an interview with Asra Panahi’s uncle in which he said she has died of a congenital heart condition.

Amid nationwide protests that have even mobilized Iranian high school students, the Islamic Republic authorities are removing photos of the Supreme Leader from classrooms in fear of students damaging the portraits.

Sources in Tehran told Iran International TV Sunday morning that four of the inmates had been seen in body covers after the incident. Hours later, Mizan, the official news agency of the Judiciary, said four prisoners died of “smoke inhalation” and four others were in critical condition. Mizan has said that the four who died were “serving time for theft”.

The names of the victims have not been disclosed.

Many inmates’ family members gathered in front of the prison Sunday morning to enquire about the safety of their loved ones. The prison houses many political prisoners and prisoners of conscience including some of those arrested in recent protests, as well as others serving time for financial and other crimes.

Rights activists are collecting information from families and compiling a list of all inmates and their health conditions. An informed source said some of the prisoners of the ward were beaten up and put in shackles outside the building during the fire.

Human rights advocate and lawyer Mostafa Nili, in a tweet Sunday said some of the inmates have been removed from Ward Eight, where both political and financial prisoners are held.

According to Nili and others, political prisoners in Ward Four were only affected by tear gas and none have been taken away.These sources have also said female inmates in the Women’s Ward were tear gassed when they went outside the building but are safe and have begun contacting their families.

Nili said he had no reliable information on the situation in Ward Seven, where scuffles between security forces and inmates and the fire occurred.

In an earlier tweet Nili said he went to the prison to enquire about the safety of his clients but there was no one was to respond. He later reported that he had talked to an assistant prosecutor who said everyone would be allowed to contact their families.

The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)-linked Fars news agency quoted an official Sunday as saying that some of the inmates had walked into a minefield on the hill in the northern side of the prison while fleeing and caused the explosions were heard by the locals. Another hardliner website with close ties to the IRGC, Mashregh News, claimed Sunday that seven inmates were killed at the minefield.

Speaking to Sharq newspaper Sunday morning, an informed source from Prisons Organization strongly refuted the claim. Fars also later quoted another ‘informed source” as saying that none of the inmates had entered the minefield.

Some of the prisoners have been allowed to call their families. In a phone call to his wife, filmmaker Jafar Panahi has said he and other inmates had gone out into the courtyard after the fire broke out but had to go back inside when security forces fired tear gas at them.

Authorities have made different and contradictory statements about the cause of the fire but claim that it was started by inmates after they had a scuffle among themselves in a clothing depo or in a sewing workshop. They also insist that that the incident was not related to ongoing protests or prisoners serving security-related time such as political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

Radio Farda, the Persian Service of the US government’s Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL), published a video Sunday which appears to show a fire being lit in an area inside the prison. In the video several bright objects are seen rising from a distance and descending on the prison after which explosions are heard. An eyewitness told Radio Farda that there were five explosions in total.