A group of prisoners in Iran alleged that a coordinated network trafficking narcotics and other illicit goods has operated for years across multiple detention facilities, according to a report they released on Sunday.
“The identity of the godfather and the members of his network is now clear,” the prisoners of Ghezel Hesar facility in Karaj wrote in a report. “There is no room left for denial or claims of ignorance.”
They called on judicial authorities and the Prisons Organization to act “immediately and transparently” to protect inmates and halt the network’s activities.
Network tied to senior prison official
Esmail Farajnejad, Ghezel Hesar prison’s deputy for health affairs, according to the report.
The prisoners said his involvement dates back to his time at Rajaei Shahr prison, where they said he and several associates helped distribute narcotics and other illicit goods.
Farajnejad was later reassigned to Ghezel Hesar, but the prisoners said his reach endured with backing from a senior official they identified only as “Mr. Baay,” who subsequently rose to a powerful internal security role.
The inmates said the network reaped “significant financial gain” from drug trafficking and from securing internal appointments that kept its members in key roles.
Farajnejad, they alleged, maintained control through threats and intimidation during his tenure.
Ghezel Hesar, one of Iran’s largest and most feared prisons, recorded 183 executions in the last year, the rights group HRANA reported in October.
Role in suppressing recent strike
The prisoners said Farajnejad played a direct role in ending a strike in Ward 2 mid-October, after 15 inmates on death row were moved to pre-execution cells.
They alleged he initially relayed sympathetic messages through prisoners close to him, but hardened his stance as the protest spread.
“He called the prisoners stubborn and uncomprehending,” they wrote, quoting him as warning that executions would go ahead “in groups of thirty” if the strike continued. The inmates said protesters then escalated by sewing their lips shut.
The report ends with a warning that more names tied to the alleged network will be made public if authorities fail to act.
The prisoners said the network’s structure and beneficiaries “are now fully exposed,” and urged officials to intervene to protect those in custody.
Power plants burned more than 21 million liters of mazut on November 14, the outlet said – a volume that would require oil tankers stretching roughly 14 kilometers end to end.
Stations in Hamedan in the west, Neka in the north and Arak in Markazi province were among the biggest consumers, it added.
“We do not want to burn mazut because it damages plants and is an expensive commodity,” Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said last week. “But when gas is scarce, we are forced to use it.”
Government assurances under pressure
Officials in President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration have repeatedly vowed to phase out mazut in favor of cleaner fuels.
Scheduled outages could temporarily replace “producing poison” for the public, Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani wrote on X in November last year. Her remarks came shortly after summer blackouts and the onset of household gas cuts.
State media later said Pezeshkian ordered mazut use halted at power stations in Arak, Karaj and Isfahan. Yet in several cities, especially Arak, hazardous smog persisted through mid-March, prompting repeated street protests.
Three months after the announced halt, in February, parliamentary agriculture committee spokesperson Somayeh Rafiei said all thermal plants had shifted to mazut.
In a separate August report, business outlet Tejarat News assessed mazut as an “official and relied-upon” tool in managing the energy crisis, adding that it had remained in use the previous year despite official assurances.
Tehran imposes emergency school closures
Tehran’s emergency air-quality task force met on Sunday at the health ministry’s request and approved online schooling for primary classes across the province on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The decision followed forecasts indicating that pollution would intensify through the week, task force secretary Hassan Abbasnejad said.
“After reviewing reports from the environment department, the medical university and the meteorological organization, it was decided that primary classes will be held virtually,” Abbasnejad said.
Daycare centers and preschools in districts classified as unhealthy for all groups would shut, and female employees with young children could work remotely, he added.
Calls to phase out ageing vehicles, invest in cleaner energy and bolster a central environmental authority have so far gone unanswered. Critics say that without systemic change, major cities, including Tehran, will keep paying the price in hazardous air and lost lives.
As winter inversion deepens, the combination of stagnant air and growing mazut consumption is heightening concerns that Iran’s most polluted weeks may still lie ahead.
“Children aged 13 and 14 can be registered directly or by parents as marriage candidates,” Shargh wrote on Saturday.
The website Adam and Hava (Adam and Eve), which brands itself as a formal marriage intermediary, allows users to open profiles either for themselves or for a child or relative.
Shargh reporters were able to create a full profile for a girl born in 2012 without any age restriction or identity barrier, indicating that minors can be listed seamlessly as marriage candidates.
Profiles reviewed in the investigation show under-18 users concentrated in deprived regions where early marriage is common. Girls appear most frequently between 13 and 16, while boys cluster between 16 and 18.
The site’s 80-question registration form emphasizes religious observance, gender-role expectations, political attitudes and views on hijab, make-up and social interaction, but includes no questions about consent, emotional readiness or psychological maturity for minors.
Operator cites legal obligations
Executive manager Mohammad-Hossein Asghari defended the platform, saying the law obliges it to accept users who fall within statutory marriage ages. “Article 1041 of the Civil Code sets the marriage age at 13 for women and 15 for men,” Asghari said.
“From a legal standpoint we are obliged to accept membership and cannot block someone who falls within the age range set by law.”
About 300,000 people, he said, have attempted to register, with 70,000 profiles currently active following identity checks and psychological screening. Minors under 15, he added, must have a parent complete the form, and staff speak directly with the child before approval.
Experts warn of deepening risks
Child-rights advocates told Shargh that formalizing under-18 marriage through a widely promoted digital platform deepens an already harmful pattern.
Children who marry between 10 and 16 lack the emotional and social development required for partnership and parenting, facing elevated risks of violence and long-term trauma, Psychologist Mansoureh Shahnazari told the outlet.
Iran’s Statistical Center recorded around 25,900 marriages of girls under 15 in 2022, down from roughly 32,000 in 2021 – figures that researchers say illustrate inconsistencies in government reporting.
Legal specialist Sahar Khajehvand described the platform’s model as “marketing child marriage” and said it contradicts constitutional commitments to stable family formation based on maturity rather than poverty or coercion.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has repeatedly promoted policies encouraging higher birth rates and earlier marriages, with a target population of 150 million by 2050.
In line with these priorities, parliament passed the Rejuvenation of the Population and Protection of the Family law in 2021, imposing penalties for actions deemed to oppose childbearing or delay marriage, effectively placing demographic goals above safeguards for children.
With tens of thousands of child marriages recorded annually and a platform openly enrolling minors under an official banner, campaigners say only a clear ban on under-18 marriage will prevent online tools from further normalizing the practice.
“The issue of a mediator is not on the table,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said at a weekly briefing.
“This letter was simply a routine correspondence exchanged within the framework of Iran-Saudi discussions on organizing the Hajj. It contains the Islamic Republic of Iran’s message of appreciation to Saudi Arabia for the services it provided during last year's Hajj.”
Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two sources familiar with the exchange, that Pezeshkian had urged the crown prince to help persuade US President Donald Trump to revive nuclear talks.
Pezeshkian, the outlet reported, wrote that Iran “does not seek confrontation,” wants deeper regional cooperation, and remains ready for nuclear diplomacy if its rights are guaranteed.
Saudi state news agency SPA said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a letter from Pezeshkian, a day before the crown prince traveled to the United States for talks with Trump.
The Reuters report came after Trump said last week that he seeks a deal with Iran and believes Tehran does too, speaking alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who said he would try to help Tehran and Washington reach a deal.
Talks between Iran and the United States stalled after the 12-day war and the US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, a period during which the UN snapback mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal was also triggered reimposing sanctions on Tehran.
Tehran challenges IAEA stance
Baghaei also addressed Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying Iran’s membership eliminates any need for mediation efforts.
“We are a member of the IAEA and we do not need a mediator,” he said.
The United States and Israel, Baghaei added, must answer for actions he said disrupted cooperation, adding the agency “should not constantly complain” about Iran’s posture.
He urged the IAEA leadership to uphold its professional obligations, saying impediments to cooperation were created by Israel, the United States and the three European parties to the now-defunct nuclear deal.
“Regarding the problems in our cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is Israel and the United States – who attacked us – that must be held accountable, and the agency should stop constantly complaining about our lack of cooperation.”
'Cairo accord is dead'
Baghaei said the Cairo agreement reached in September between Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi “has no practical applicability and lacks validity” following last week’s Board of Governors vote adopting a resolution advanced by the United States, France, Britain, and Germany.
Araghchi said after the vote that “the Cairo agreement had been killed.”
On Iran’s next steps, Baghaei said decisions on the nuclear file are made “at the macro level” and details will be shared once decisions are reached.
The IAEA said last week that it needs more Iranian cooperation to restore full inspections at sites hit in June’s strikes, warning that verification of enriched uranium stocks is “long overdue.”