PARIS: Four prisoners died in a fire that raged overnight in the Iranian capital’s Evin prison, said the Iran judiciary authority’s website Mizan Online.

“Four prisoners died due to smoke inhalation caused by the fire and 61 were injured,” the website reported, adding that four of the injured were in “serious condition”.

Evin prison also holds foreign detainees and thousands facing criminal charges. Hundreds of those arrested during the recent demonstrations have reportedly been sent there.

Rights groups had voiced grave fears for the inmates after gunshots and explosions were heard during the blaze from inside the complex, illuminated by flames and smothered by smoke in footage posted on social media channels.

The fire — blamed on “riots and clashes” and later brought under control according to authorities — came as Iran has been rocked by protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest for violating Iran’s dress code for women.

“The life of every political and ordinary crime prisoner (in Evin) is at grave risk,” the Oslo-based non-government group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said overnight. It said authorities had closed off roads leading to the jail in an apparent bid to stop protests taking place outside the jail.

But some headed there on foot and chants of “Death to the dictator” could be heard in videos shared by social media channel 1500tasvir.

“Prisoners, including political prisoners, are completely defenceless inside that prison,” said Hadi Ghaemi of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Freedom of expression group Article 19 said it had heard reports of telephone and Internet connections at Evin being cut.

Iranian rights activist Atena Daemi, herself a long-time inmate of Evin, wrote on Twitter that in the early hours of Sunday several buses and ambulances were seen leaving the prison.

The Mizan Online said late Saturday the fire had been extinguished.

Citing a Tehran prosecutor, the official IRNA news agency said the clashes at Evin had “nothing to do with the recent unrest in the country”.

The four inmates who died had been convicted of robbery, Mizan said.

Evin prison holds foreign inmates including French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and US citizen Siamak Namazi, whose family said he was taken back into custody this week after a temporary release. Namazi’s US attorney Jared Genser said he had now spoken to his family and that he was unharmed.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2022