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How a Prison Fire Unfolded in Iran


“She said the sirens sounded suspicious and they didn’t know what was going on,” Motalebzadeh’s husband, Sadra Abdollahi, a filmmaker, said in a phone interview from Tehran. . He said he also had direct contact with other inmates. “People told me that Saturday’s situation was extremely violent, like a war zone.”

Motalebzadeh was hospitalized after contemplating suicide on Thursday, following an argument with a female warden who told her she and other female inmates deserved to be killed in the prison’s unrest, Mr. Abdollahi said.

During a morning outdoor break, several women chanted anti-government slogans and banged on a rusty door leading to a guard post. The guards shone lasers on their bodies to frighten them. Some women overheard a conversation between female security guards about a plan for riot police to attack the men’s area.

That afternoon, skirmishes broke out in Ward 7, a three-story structure that holds more than a thousand prisoners, most of them criminal convicted of theft, gang violence, and smuggling. drug and financial crime. According to families, activists and lawyers, the inmates chanted anti-government slogans and broke the bars of their cells.

The unrest in Ward 7 intensified and by dusk, riot police and prison guards stormed the ward, clashing with inmates and firing tear gas into cells. In the thick smoke and chaos, the prisoners broke down the door to the courtyard and the adjoining door connecting wards 7 and 8.

By 8 p.m., the security forces opened fire. Trapped in the yard and with bullets flying, some inmates tried to escape the clash but were shot, handcuffed and hit in the head and face with batons, according to their families, lawyers and Amnesty. Hundreds of inmates, including those with gunshot wounds, were dragged into a gym and beaten.

Mohammad Khani, a social researcher, was shot in the waist with a live bullet and has since developed a life-threatening infection. Yashar Tohidi, an aeronautical engineering student, was shot in the thigh and hospitalized with heavy bleeding. The situation of both men, who were serving time in prison for trespassing national security, was described by lawyers.

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