Evin Prison Fire Death Toll Climbs to Eight

The death toll of Saturday night's fire and riot in Iran's notorious Evin prison rose to eight, the judiciary's news agency reported Monday.

The judiciary's Mizan news agency said four prisoners had succumbed to their injuries on Sunday night. It claimed that all of those who were killed during the fire had been held in prison on theft charges. 

Mizan described the incident as a "fight between inmates and a fire," though it offered no evidence.

Activists outside of Iran raised concerns about the actual number of death. They said they were suspicious of the Iranian government's claims, mainly as their recent descriptions of the nationwide protests have drastically differed from those on the ground.

Following events at Evin, the Coordinating Council of Trade Union Organizations of Iranian Educators expressed deep concern in a statement. They warned: "Responsibility for the protection and health of prisoners is with the organization of prisons and the judiciary … any loss of life of prisoners is on the judiciary of the Islamic Republic and will certainly have severe consequences for its perpetrators." 

The statement named imprisoned teachers in Evin, including Rasul Bodaghi, Jafar Ebrahimi, Mohammad Habibi, Eskandar Lotfi, and Masoud Nikkhah.

Sources inside the prison have told IranWire that wards 7 and 8 of the prison, where common criminals are held, had witnessed a riot as reinforcements arrived at the scene. There are reports that some of the recent detainees are also held in those wards. Videos from the scene show hots continued to ring out as plumes of smoke engulfed the sky in Tehran amid the sound of an alarm.

Evin Prison, which holds detainees facing security-related charges and includes dual citizens, has been charged by rights groups with abusing inmates.

Hundreds of the protesters arrested in recent weeks for their participation in the ongoing anti-government protests have been sent to Evin, infamous for the ill-treatment of political prisoners, which also holds foreign detainees and thousands jailed on criminal charges.

Iranian authorities have been using Evin Prison for detaining, interrogating and jailing political prisoners. The facility was opened in northern Tehran in 1972 during Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's reign before he was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.