Jump to content

Evin Prison

Coordinates: 35°47′46″N 51°23′02″E / 35.796°N 51.384°E / 35.796; 51.384
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by QLineOrientalist (talk | contribs) at 17:37, 13 November 2010 (Redeleted Taraneh Mousavi story. The person who restored it claimed that the source is acceptable by BLPSPS. BLPSPS is irrelevant. here. The section is based on a blogger's unsourced claim.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Evin House of Detention

Evin House of Detention (Template:Lang-fa Zendān Evin) is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Due to the number of intellectuals that the prison housed, it was nicknamed "Evin University."[1]

Background

Constructed in 1972 under the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Evin Prison is located at the foot of the Alborz mountains on the former home of Ziaeddin Tabatabaee, who briefly served as prime minister in the 1920s. The grounds of the prison included an execution yard, courtroom and separate blocks for common criminals and female inmates. Originally operated by the Shah's security and intelligence service, SAVAK, Evin quickly supplanted Qasr Prison as "the country's Bastille." Initially designed to house 320 inmates (20 in solitary cells and 300 in two large communal blocks), Evin expanded to hold more than 1500 prisoners (including 100 solitary cells for the most important political prisoners) by 1977.[2]

Under the Islamic Republic, the prison population was again expanded significantly, holding 15,000 inmates according to scholar Ervand Abrahamian.[3] "In theory, Evin was a detention center for those awaiting trial," after which the prisoners would be transferred to another prison, Qezel Hesar or Gohardasht Prison. "In reality, Evin served as a regular prison as many waited years before being brought to trial," and prominent prisoners often served their entire sentences in Evin." Executions also took place at Evin.[4] Following the Islamic Revolution, Mohammad Kachouyi was made warden of Evin. After his assassination in June 1981, Asadollah Lajevardi, the chief prosecutor of Tehran, served as warden until 1985.[5] In 1998, the People's Mujahedin of Iran assassinated Lajevardi.

The prison is located in a residential and commercial area known as Evin, next to the Saadat Abad district. There is a large park area with a popular upscale teahouse and restaurant located immediately next to it. Photography in front of and around the prison is illegal.[6]

Prisoners

Notable prisoners at Evin before the 1979 revolution include Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani and Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri.[citation needed]

On 23 June 2003, Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested for taking photographs in front of the prison, and died of blunt trauma to the head, while imprisoned. The Iranian government said that she died from a stroke while being interrogated. Doctors examining Kazemi's body found evidence of rape, torture and a skull fracture.[7]

Prisoners held after the Islamic revolution include Marina Nemat, who spent two years in Evin from 1982, having participated in anti regime protests at her school. She has written about her torture and the death of her fellow students at the prison.[8]

Political prisoners of note held at Evin have included Akbar Ganji (held there from 2000 to 2006), Mohsen Sazegara (in 2003), Nasser Zarafshan, as well as Hamid Pourmand (2005-6), Dariush Zahedi, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, on charges of espionage (2003), subsequently acquitted in 2004, and Ramin Jahanbegloo (2006).

The prison also holds members of religious minorities including members of the Bahá'í Faith — on May 14, 2008, members of an informal body that oversaw the needs of the Bahá'í community in Iran were arrested and taken to Evin prison.[9] They are held in section 209 of the prison which is run by the government's Ministry of Intelligence.[10] The seven Bahá'í leaders have not been able to meet with their lawyers since their arrest.[10]

At dawn on 27 July 2008, the Iranian Government executed a total of 29 people at Evin Prison by hanging.[11]

Esha Momeni, a student at the California State University, Northridge, was held at Evin after her arrest on October 15, 2008 for crimes against national security.[12] She was in Iran to visit family and research women's rights in the country.[13][14] Momeni was released 11 November 2008.[15]

Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist, was arrested in January 2009 for reporting without press credentials with a charge of espionage added in April. She was held in the Evin Prison as well. She was released in May 2009.[16][17]

Journalist/blogger Hossein Derakhshan is rumored to be held in Evin. He was arrested in November 2008, allegedly for spying for Israel, but little news has been reported on his detention.[18] In March 2010, Derakhshan's mother called on the head of Iran's judiciary to release her son for the Iranian New Year, or Norouz, who has been detained 500 days without any official charge.[19] On June 23, 2010, Tehran Revolutionary Court held Hossein Derakhshan’s first trial.[20]

French student Clotilde Reiss, who stood trial in August 2009 was also held there. Dr. Ehsan Naraghi, writer, was also believed to be held as a political prisoner in Evin.

Over the years Iranian Christians have been detained for short or long periods. Recently on March 5, 2009 Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad and Maryam Rustampoor were arrested by Iranian security forces and labeled "anti-government activists".[21] Thirty year-old Marzieh and 27-year-old Maryam were held at Evin Prison, which is notorious for treating women badly. "Women are allowed just a one-minute telephone call everyday to their immediate families." On November 18, 2009, Maryam and Marzieh were released without bail but the charges remained intact.[22] In April 2010, five months after their release, a general court trial date is announced. In May 2010 Maryam and Marzieh are cleared of all charges.[23]

Three Belgian tourists, Vincent Boon-Falleur, Idesbald Van den Bosch and Diego Mathieu, have been detained in Evin Prison for 3 months in 2009. Idesbald and Vincent were arrested on September 5, 2009, for entering an unmarked Iranian Military Zone near Semnan, and were detained in Semnan for 3 days, before being transferred to Evin. Diego was later (16 September) arrested at the Iran-Turkmenistan border, because the three had met the 4th of September and exchanged phone numbers. The three were accused of spying and detained for three months (8 September—8 December 2009) in Section 209 of the Evin Prison, first for a few weeks in solitary confinement, and then in 4-persons cells with other Iranians. They have been released thanks to Belgium diplomatic negotiations.[24][25]

Three American anti-war, social justice and Palestinian solidarity activists, Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, who were on holiday in Iraqi Kurdistan and were detained by Iran, have been held in Evin Prison since around the beginning of August 2009. Shourd is kept in solitary confinement.[26] The Washington Post reported that "Shane Michael Bauer, 27, Sarah Emily Shourd, 31, and Joshua Felix Fattal, 27, were arrested in July [2009] by Iranian border guards while hiking in the mountainous Kurdish region between Iraq and Iran. Their families say they crossed the border accidentally, but a top Iranian prosecutor last month accused the three of spying." In December, 2009, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the three would be put on trial, in a move that coincided with other points of contention between the two countries.[27] Sarah Shourd was freed Sept. 14, 2010 on $500,000 bail. Two days before, the three Americans had been charged with espionage by Iranian prosecutors.[citation needed]

Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundullah, was executed in the prison in 2010.

Reactions

In August 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad commented in a live broadcast on the state radio on rape and torture in the Iranian prisons and said; "In some detention centers inappropriate measures have taken place for which the enemy was again responsible." [28]

Following the election, Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi said that several male and female protesters held behind bars have been savagely raped, according to a confidential letter to powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.[29] Karroubi warned that this was only a "fragment" of the evidence he had and that if the denials did not stop, he would release even more.[30][31]

Roxana Saberi, who spent 4 months in Evin in 2003, accused of espionage and threatening Iran’s national security. She had been living in Iran for six years, working as a journalist and writing a book about modern Iran based on interviews with a broad cross-section of society, when she was detained. She later described her ordeal in a book, titled 'Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran' (2010).[32]

It is said, that rape has been used by interrogators in Iran for decades.[33] During the 1980s, the rape of female political prisoners was prevalent. It was so prevalent that it prompted Hussein-Ali Montazeri, who was Ayatollah Khomeini’s deputy at the time, to write the following to Khomeini in a letter dated October 7, 1986: "Did you know that young women are raped in some of the prisons of the Islamic Republic?"[28]

Two prominent members of Iran’s human rights community, the feminist lawyer and journalist Shadi Sadr and the blogger and activist Mojtaba Saminejad, published essays online from inside Iran arguing that far from being a new phenomenon, prison rape has a long history in the Islamic Republic.[28]

References and notes

  1. ^ Inskeep, Steve. "Iran's Evin Prison Likened to Torture Chamber." National Public Radio. 19 July 2007. Retrieved on 8 July 2010.
  2. ^ Abrahamian, Ervand (1999). Tortured confessions: prisons and public recantations in modern Iran. University of California Press. p. 105. ISBN 9780520218666. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
  3. ^ Abrahamian, p. 135-6
  4. ^ Abrahamian, p.135
  5. ^ Abrahamian, p.136
  6. ^ Schmidt, Andréa (2005-11-19). "Killer images". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  7. ^ Indepth: Zahra Kazemi CBC News Online | Updated November 16, 2005 Retrieved 25/09/07
  8. ^ http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1066903&site_id=1#import
  9. ^ CNN (2008-05-16). "Iran's arrest of Baha'is condemned". CNN. Retrieved 2009-10-24. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  10. ^ a b Amnesty International (2009-06-03). "Iran: Seven Baha'is Leaders Risk Execution". Amnesty International. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
  11. ^ Iran executes 29 in jail hangings. BBC
  12. ^ http://www.iranfocus.com/en/women/iran-holds-student-living-in-u.s.-on-security-charges-16619.html
  13. ^ Iran: Arbitrary detention/ fear of torture or other ill-treatment: Esha Momeni (f). 21 October 2008, Dr. Ehsan Naraghi, writer , he was political prisoner in Evin.amnesty.org
  14. ^ IRAN Esha Momeni (f), student. 21 October 2008
  15. ^ "Amnesty: Iran frees American-born grad student - CNN.com". CNN. 2008-11-11. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
  16. ^ Nazila Fathi, "American Journalist Stands Trial in Iran," The New York Times, Tuesday, April 14, 2009, available online at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/world/middleeast/15iran.html?hpw
  17. ^ "U.S. Reported Jailed in Iran to Be Freed 'Today'." Fox News Online. Fox News Channel. 11 May 2009 available online at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519721,00.html.
  18. ^ Iranian 'Blogfather' Hossein Derakhshan is arrested on charge of spying for Israel
  19. ^ Blogger detained for 500 days without charge
  20. ^ On trial after 19-month news blackout since arrest
  21. ^ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/10/jailed-iranians-stand-by-god/
  22. ^ PrisonerAlert
  23. ^ Cleared of all charges: Maryam and Marzieh go free!
  24. ^ CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/26/iran.hikers.belgians/index.html
  25. ^ ABC, http://abcnews.go.com/International/exclusive-prison-taking-toll-us-hikers-iran/story?id=9677062
  26. ^ "Mothers continue fight for release of Iran hikers", by The World, July 20, 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-20.
  27. ^ "Iran intends to go forward with espionage trial of 3 Americans: Move comes week after release demand directed at U.S.", by Kay Armin Serjoie, Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin, Washington Post, December 15, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-20.
  28. ^ a b c Iranians Say Prison Rape Is Not New
  29. ^ Protest prison chief jailed in alleged rape, abuse scandal
  30. ^ Reformer in Iran Publishes Account of a Prison Rape
  31. ^ Shame On Iran
  32. ^ Powerful New Book Describes Iranian-American’s Ordeal in Iran
  33. ^ New Prison-Rape Allegations In Iran Bring Practice To Light

35°47′46″N 51°23′02″E / 35.796°N 51.384°E / 35.796; 51.384

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Evin_Prison&oldid=396542607"