- Iranian authorities subjected detainees held in Evin prison, including arbitrarily detained human rights defenders and dissidents, to ill-treatment and violence during transfers out of Evin prison after the Israeli attack and as they moved hundreds back to the prison 46 days later.
- Authorities have held Evin prisoners in facilities that are overcrowded, filthy, and insect-infested and have refused to disclose the fate and whereabouts of some detainees, which amounts to enforced disappearances and places them at risk of torture.
- UN member states should pressure Iran’s government to immediately halt any plans to execute death-row prisoners; disclose the fate and whereabouts of forcibly disappeared detainees, including Swedish-Iranian death-row prisoner Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali; and release all arbitrarily detained prisoners.
(Beirut, August 14, 2025) – Iranian authorities have ill-treated and forcibly disappeared Evin prison detainees who survived the June 23, 2025 attack by Israeli forces, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also found the Israeli strikes on the prison to be an apparent war crime.
Despite repeated calls and pleas by prisoners and their families, Iranian authorities failed to take any measures to protect detainees’ lives and safety prior to the attack. In the aftermath, the authorities have ill-treated survivors during transfers to other prisons, as well as when returning prisoners back to Evin, and held them in cruel and unsafe conditions. The treatment of prisoners in the attack’s aftermath bears all the hallmarks of Iranian authorities’ extensive use of repression, in particular during times of crisis.
“Iranian authorities’ response to traumatized Evin prisoners who had just witnessed fellow inmates killed and injured during the June 23 Israeli attack was to abuse them,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Iranian authorities have committed a catalogue of violations against prisoners in the aftermath of the attack, including beatings, insults, and threats during transfers, and holding prisoners in appalling conditions that have endangered their lives and health. Death-row inmates and those forcibly disappeared are now at heightened risk of torture or execution.”
Between June 24 and July 29, Human Rights Watch interviewed and spoke with 23 family members of prisoners, formerly detained human rights defenders, and other informed sources in connection with the June 23 Israeli attack on Evin prison and Iranian authorities’ subsequent treatment of prisoners. Researchers also reviewed accounts of prisoners’ treatment, obtained by other human rights groups and shared with Human Rights Watch, and publicly available accounts from prisoners and their families.
Human Rights Watch wrote to Iranian authorities seeking information about the fate and whereabouts of detainees, particularly those held in detention facilities run by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The authorities have not responded.
According to prisoners’ accounts, security forces were deployed to Evin prison wards, including Wards 4 and 8, where many male political prisoners are held, shortly after the attack. They ordered prisoners to leave at gunpoint, with little or no time to pack their belongings. The security forces shackled male prisoners in pairs and marched them into buses for hours-long journeys, insulting the prisoners and pointing weapons at them.
The transfer of hundreds of male prisoners back to Evin prison in the early hours of August 8, 46 days after the attack, was similarly marked by violence. Based on information obtained by Human Rights Watch, security forces subjected several political prisoners to beatings with batons and electric shock weapons because they protested being handcuffed, as well as protesting the transfer of death-row inmates to separate detention facilities.
In the aftermath of the attack, the authorities transferred the prisoners to two main detention facilities in Tehran province: Shahr-e Rey prison, known as Qarchak prison, for women and the Great Tehran Central Penitentiary, known as Fashafouyeh prison, for men. The authorities have not revealed information about the fate and whereabouts of some detainees held by security and intelligence bodies, including dissidents, human rights activists, and dual and foreign nationals. In some cases, authorities have only allowed detainees to make a brief call to their family only to inform them that they were held in solitary cells, sometimes in unknown locations.
On June 23, the authorities transferred an arbitrarily detained Swedish-Iranian doctor, Ahmadreza Djalali, who is at imminent risk of execution, to an unknown location. As of August 9, authorities had, when asked, refused to disclose any information about his fate and whereabouts, thus subjecting him to an enforced disappearance.
Enforced disappearances are grave crimes under international law and are considered ongoingso long as the fate of those disappeared remains unacknowledged and their whereabouts unknown.
The authorities’ refusal to disclose the fate and whereabouts of detainees and some prisoners has also heightened fears for transgender prisoners held in Evin prison’s quarantine section. A transgender woman formerly held in the quarantine section of Evin told Human Rights Watch that many transgender prisoners “have nobody” and are estranged from families “who shun them.” She expressed concerns that, “even if they are hurt or dead, no one would know as their families might not even be aware that they were there.”
Fears of imminent executions have also grown for six other death-row prisoners. Vahid Bani Amerian, Pouya Ghobadi, Akbar “Shahrokh” Daneshvarkar, Babak Alipour, and Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi were separated from other prisoners during the August 8 transfer and reportedly moved to Ghezel Hesar prison in Alborz province, where people on death row are routinely moved in advance of executions. Another man, Babak Shahbazi, was transferred to Ghezel Hesar prison earlier in the week.
Families of prisoners in both Qarchak and Fashafouyeh prisons described to Human Rights Watch abysmal prison conditions, such as poorly ventilated, filthy, and overcrowded rooms with many prisoners forced to sleep on the floor; as well as a lack of access to clean, potable water and adequate facilities to maintain personal hygiene. These conditions place detainees’ lives and health at risk.
Political prisoners in Qarchak prison are held in the quarantine section, where they have been told that they would remain indefinitely. A human rights defender formerly held there told Human Rights Watch that the quarantine section is the prison’s worst part, designed for temporary detention of new detainees, with walls stained with vomit and feces. Another human rights defender formerly held there said that the prison is “unfit, even for animals.”
A relative of an imprisoned human rights defender told Human Rights Watch that Fashafouyeh prison had severe insect infestation and that their imprisoned loved one had picked six or seven bedbugs from his sheets in one morning alone. A family member of another political prisoner said that prisoners’ bodies were covered in insect bites.
Based on information obtained by Human Rights Watch, authorities in Fashafouyeh prison have also subjected families of prisoners to inhuman, cruel, and degrading treatment by conducting intrusive and humiliating body searches prior to visitations. An informed source said that in some instances, prisoners’ relatives, including children, have been forced to strip naked during searches, causing them extreme distress.
Human Rights Watch is also deeply alarmed about the situation of prisoners who were returned to Wards 7 and 8 of Evin prison on August 8, given the extensive damage to prison facilities that are vital to prisoners’ health and well-being, including the clinic and the visitation hall. Concerns are heightened in light of the authorities’ long-standing patterns of denying prisoners, including arbitrarily detained political prisoners, adequate medical care.
The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, set minimum standards for treatment of prisoners concerning health and minimum floor space and say that ventilation and drinking water must be available to every prisoner.
UN member states should urge the authorities to immediately release all arbitrarily detained individuals and to disclose the fate and whereabouts of prisoners they forcibly disappeared.
“Iranian authorities should not use Israel’s strikes on Evin prison as another opportunity to subject prisoners, including those who should never have been in prison in the first place, to ill-treatment,” Page said. “UN member states should press Iran’s government to immediately halt any planned executions, release everyone arbitrarily detained, ensure humane and safe prison conditions, and end the anguish of families of those forcibly disappeared by disclosing their fate and whereabouts.”
Lack of Protection Prior to the June 23 Attack
All sources who spoke with Human Rights Watch stated that at the start of the Israeli strikes across Tehran, Evin prisoners and their relatives repeatedly asked judicial, prosecutorial, and prison authorities to take measures to at least temporarily or conditionally release prisoners. However, the authorities refused to do so, nor did they take any other protective measures, such as transferring prisoners to safer locations.
A human rights defender who had been involved in efforts to release prisoners said that in the days before the June 23 attack, “prisoners could hear the sounds of explosions and were terrified.” On June 17, Deutsche Welle Persian reported that Reza Valizadeh, a detained journalist in Ward 8, had sent a message to media outlets urging the judiciary to implement a 1986 Resolution by the Supreme Judicial Council that allowed for the conditional release or release on bail of prisoners during wartime emergencies. Valizadeh said that Ward 8 was an old five-story building without emergency stairs or even fire extinguishers and that rescuers’ access would be difficult if the building were hit.
Article 201 of Iran’s Prisons Regulations, cited in an open letter from political prisoners, also allows for prisoner releases in certain circumstances, for example when a prison population “reaches an unacceptable level” or during other times of “crisis such as natural disasters, unforeseeable incidents, or outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases.” Under the law, the prison director and the judiciary should take necessary measures until the emergency is resolved.
In his publicly available account of the attack on Evin prison and its aftermath, an arbitrarily detained human rights defender, Reza Khandan, said that despite repeated pleas, authorities failed to take any measures to protect prisoners.
Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment During Transfers
Human Rights Watch documented inhuman, cruel, and degrading treatment by security forces as they transferred prisoners to other prisons shortly after the June 23 attack.
In their publicly available account, Abolfazl Ghadiani and Mehdi Mahmoudian, political prisoners in Ward 4, said that at around 5:00 p.m., security forces told prisoners there that they had 10 minutes to move, otherwise they would be shot. In his account, Khandan also said that the head of Evin prison and the head of Tehran’s prisons ordered security forces to shackle prisoners in pairs, and that security forces pointed their guns at prisoners’ chests. He said that with every move, one of the prisoners tied in pairs would lose their balance and the shackles dug deeper wounds into their ankles while armed security forces made degrading remarks and directed profanities and threats at them.
One Ward 4 prisoner, whose account was obtained by a human rights group and shared with Human Rights Watch, stated that the security forces treated them “brutally,” with a member of the forces threatening that they “would shoot and kill” them unless they left the ward.
Several prisoners from Wards 4 and 8 said that the transfers took over 10 hours, with shackled and traumatized prisoners left waiting for hours in lines or in buses as the nightly aerial strikes by Israel started and the air defense system was activated, leaving them terrified for their lives.
An informed source told Human Rights Watch that women prisoners were locked in their ward without access to water and phones, before they were moved to Qarchak prison in the morning of June 24.
According to information reviewed by Human Rights Watch, authorities subjected male prisoners to ill-treatment during transfers from Fashafouyeh prison to Evin prison on August 8. Informed sources reported that after prisoners protested the separation and transfer to other facilities of death-row inmates, security forces used batons and electric shock weapons to beat several political prisoners, including Mohammad Reza Faghihi, Motalleb Ahmadian, Hossein Shanbehzadeh, Amir Hossein Mousavi, Morteza Parvin, Abolfazl Ghadiani, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Mehdi Mahmoudian, Mohammad Bagher Bakhtiar, and Khashayar Sefidi. The beatings reportedly resulted in prisoners sustaining injuries.
Enforced Disappearance of Detainees
Iranian authorities have refused to release information, including in response to Human Rights Watch’s letter, about the situation of detainees held in sections of Evin prison run by intelligence and security bodies. These include sections 209 and 240, under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence; 2A, run by the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC; and 241, run by the Judiciary’s Intelligence Organization.
In some cases, informed sources told Human Rights Watch that authorities repeatedly refused relatives and lawyers’ requests to disclose information about the fate and whereabouts of detainees. Detention facilities run by security and intelligence bodies have been used for decades to hold dissidents, activists, and other people facing national security charges in connection with peacefully exercising their human rights, as well as members of persecuted religious minorities such as Baha’is.
Some Persian-language media reports based outside of Iran have suggested that some detainees have been moved to “safe houses,” meaning secret detention facilities, or solitary cells within other prisons.
Human Rights Watch documented that authorities allowed a few detainees whose fate and whereabouts remained unknown to make brief phone calls to their distressed family members, but that the families were denied any information about the prisoners’ situations and whereabouts for days or even weeks.
Authorities transferred Ali Younesi, an arbitrarily detained 25-year-old student and the 2018 gold medal winner in the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad, who was arrested in April 2020, to an unidentified location on June 17. His family received no information for 12 days, including in the aftermath of the June 23 strike on the prison. On June 30, Younesi was allowed a brief phone call to a family member and told them that he was held in a cell in Fashafouyeh prison in poor conditions.
An informed source told Human Rights Watch that subsequent to this brief phone call, the authorities, when asked, continued to deny Younesi’s family information about his fate and whereabouts, thus subjecting him to enforced disappearance.
According to information received by Human Rights Watch on August 10, Branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran has convicted and sentenced Younesi, who has been imprisoned for the past five years, to an additional five years in prison for the undefined charge of “affirming and strengthening the Zionist Regime,” as well as an additional 15 months for “propaganda against the state.” Based on publicly available reports from his lawyer, Younesi will have to serve his new prison term in Kerman prison, far away from his family, and will be under severe communications restrictions. An informed source told Human Rights Watch that Younesi is currently being held in poor conditions in Qom prison.
According to publicly available accounts by his relatives, the authorities also denied the family of Mostafa Mehraeen, a university lecturer detained on June 15 who was in Section 209 at the time of the attack, any information about his fate and whereabouts for at least 11 days after his arrest, including in the aftermath of the attack. On July 14, a relative said in a media interview that he was being held in Qom prison without visitation rights or access to a lawyer, and that his family had not been given information about his exact whereabouts. Mehraeen was initially arrested several hours after he published an open letter in which he called for an end to the war and for high-ranking authorities including the Supreme Leader to step down. He was released on bail on July 22.
Media reported that Arghavan Fallahi, another detainee in Section 209, was allowed a brief phone call with her family over a week after the prison strike. She reportedly informed them she was held in a dark cell but that she did not know where it was.
Informed sources told Human Rights Watch that at the time of the attack on June 23, transgender prisoners, who until several years ago were held in Section 240, were being held in the basement of the quarantine section in the southern premises of the compound. Human Rights Watch’s investigation into the June 23 Israeli attack on the prison revealed damage to the area where the quarantine section is located.
Heightened Risk for Prisoners on Death Row
Immediately after the start of hostilities on June 13, Iran’s authorities made deeply alarming calls for speedy trials and executions of people arrested over accusations of collaboration with Israel and other “hostile states.” Concerns for political prisoners on death row for espionage charges grew as authorities announced several executions within the span of a week alone.
Between June 16 and August 6, at least seven men—including Esmail Fekri, Majid Mosayebi, Mohammad Amin Shayesteh, and Rouzbeh Vadi, as well as three Kurdish men, Edris Ali, Azad Shojaei, and Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul—were executed on accusations of espionage, collaboration, or connections with Israel. The men’s executions came in the midst of an execution spree with at least 757 people executed between January 1 and August 7, according to Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based group.
Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned about the situation of the arbitrarily detained Swedish-Iranian doctor, Ahmadreza Djalali, who is at risk of torture, ill-treatment, and secret execution. In 2017, a Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced Djalali to death after convicting him of the broadly defined and vaguely worded charge of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) through “espionage.”
Human Rights Watch and UN bodies and experts have documented gross violations of due process and fair trial rights in Djalali’s case, including the use of prolonged solitary confinement, denial of access to independent lawyers of his choice, summary trials, and reliance on “confessions” obtained under torture. Amnesty International has concluded that mounting evidence in the case strongly indicates that the authorities are detaining him as leverage and in circumstances that amount to the crime of hostage-taking.
An informed source told Human Rights Watch that Djalali was able to make brief phone calls to his family shortly after the Israeli attack, informing them that he was well and that authorities had attempted to remove him from Ward 4 but other prisoners had stopped them. In their account, Ghadiani and Mahmoudian said that as prisoners were being transferred out of Evin prison, security forces attempted to separate Djalali from the rest. They said it resulted in an altercation between the security and police forces present, with each side pointing their weapons at the other.
While Djalali is reported to have been transferred alongside other prisoners to Fashafouyeh prison, he was moved to an unidentified location immediately after his arrival there. According to information obtained by Human Rights Watch, the authorities subsequently refused to disclose Djalali’s fate and whereabouts for weeks despite repeated inquiries by his lawyers, thus subjecting him to enforced disappearance.
On June 5, several UN special rapporteurs and experts of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention raised alarms about Djalali’s deteriorating health and reiterated previous calls for his release. On June 17, the European Parliament passed an urgent resolution calling for his immediate release. In a July 4 joint statement about intensified domestic repression, several UN experts raised alarms about the imminent risk of Djalali’s execution given that his whereabouts had not been revealed.
Two Kurdish women political prisoners on death row, Varisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi, convicted of broadly defined and vaguely worded charges following grossly unfair trials, are also at risk of execution, Human Rights Watch said. Both have been transferred to Qarchak prison. An informed source expressed concerns about heightened risks for them amid the chaos caused by prisoners’ transfers and the authorities’ further escalation of the use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression.
On August 8, authorities transferred at least five prisoners on death row from Fashafouyeh prison to Ghezel Hesar prison, sparking concerns that their executions may be imminent. According to Amnesty International, all five men—Akbar “Shahrokh” Daneshvarkar, Babak Alipour, Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi, Pouya Ghobadi, and Vahid Bani Amerian—have been sentenced to death on the charge of “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi) following a grossly unfair trial on allegations of being affiliated with a banned opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. Babak Shahbazi, a prisoner at Evin at the time of the June 23 attack, was transferred from Fashafouyeh prison to Ghezel Hesar prison on August 5 after the Supreme Court rejected his request for a judicial review of his case. According to the Oslo-based group, Iran Human Rights, he has been sentenced to death over accusations of espionage for Israel after a trial marred by serious human rights violations.
Poor and Inhumane Prison Conditions
At least 62 women political prisoners were transferred after the June 23 attack from the Women’s Ward of Evin prison to Qarchak prison. Based on information received by Human Rights Watch, a toddler was also transferred along with their imprisoned mother. For years, human rights organizations, activists, and UN experts and bodies have raised concerns about the inhumane and cruel conditions in this prison, formerly an unused poultry farm. The original structures have never been adequately changed to make the facility suitable for its current purpose.
Incoming women prisoners were initially moved to the prison’s gymnasium, which lacks basic facilities such as beds or ventilation. They were unable to contact their families for two days after their transfer, compounding their and their families’ anxiety. Women prisoners were then moved to the quarantine section of the prison. Sources told Human Rights Watch that the quarantine section consists of seven small rooms on a corridor with triple bunk beds, with one room reportedly uninhabitable due to an overflow of sewage. There are only two toilets and two bathrooms.
The section is typically used to hold new detainees for a day or two before they are moved to other wards. Women prisoners have however been told that they would remain in this section without any indications as to when or if they would be moved to the wards or other facilities.
Human rights defenders who spoke with Human Rights Watch raised particular concern about older women prisoners and those with pre-existing medical conditions who are more severely affected by the poor conditions.
In a media interview, Alhan Taefi, daughter of Fariba Kamalabadi, an arbitrarily detained 62-year-old Baha’i woman and a prominent community member, reported that conditions in Qarchak prison were so poor and inhumane that her mother had told her: “I wish we had died from the missile attack and would not be living in such conditions.”
Male prisoners have also been held in abysmal conditions in Fashafouyeh prison with severe overcrowding, exacerbated by the influx of new prisoners, unsanitary and filthy rooms, poor-quality and insufficient food, and a shortage of beds forcing many to sleep on the floor. It remained unclear to Human Rights Watch how many former Evin prisoners remained in Fashafouyeh prison after authorities transferred hundreds of prisoners back to Evin prison.
In their account, Ghadiani and Mahmoudian said that 162 of the prisoners moved from Evin prison were placed in three rooms, each 36 square meters with a total of only 70 beds: “During the first nights, due to shortage of space, some were not even able to sleep and had to walk until the morning or keep changing their place.”
In his account, Reza Khandan further described that “bedbugs, flies and all types of insects swarm the packed rooms, making even a moment of peace impossible.”
He said that the prison water was “salty and smelled like a swamp” and that there was a shortage of bottled water from the prison shop. Neither facility is equipped with adequate cooling systems, placing prisoners at risk of falling ill due to extreme summer temperatures, reported to be as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in early July.
Human Rights Watch also received information that officials in both facilities denied the prisoners medical care. A 30-year-old prisoner, Mohammad Bazkoul, fell seriously ill on July 5, but prison officials reportedly refused to transfer him to a hospital. An informed source said that the man suffered a heart attack later in the evening and became comatose.
Informed sources also raised concerns about the situation of Parvin Mirasan, a 70-year-old woman political prisoner in Qarchak prison, who has several health conditions, including Parkinson’s disease.
In some cases, human rights defenders and political prisoners were held in wards alongside prisoners convicted of violent offenses, in contravention of Iran’s domestic laws as well as international standards. An informed source said that since his transfer to Fashafouyeh prison, Taher Naghavi, a lawyer arbitrarily imprisoned in connection with his professional work, was held with prisoners convicted of ordinary offenses in a ward where substance use is common. Naghavi was previously denied adequate medical care in Evin prison. According to information obtained by Human Rights Watch, Naghavi’s health further deteriorated in Fashafouyeh prison as authorities have continued to deny him adequate medical care.
Relatives of prisoners also told Human Rights Watch that prisoners in Qarchak and Fashafouyeh prisons have faced reprisals for protesting their treatment and that of their families. In Qarchak prison, three political prisoners, Masoumeh Asgari, Masoumeh Nassaji, and Sayeh Seydal, were reported to have been transferred to solitary confinement on July 27 in retaliation for speaking up about poor prison conditions.
Dual and Foreign Nationals at Risk
In his message shared by Deutsche Welle Persian, Reza Valizadeh reported that foreign nationals from Germany, Indonesia, Nepal, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, and Nigeria were held in Ward 8 of Evin prison.
Human Rights Watch is aware of the cases of three dual and foreign nationals who were detained at Evin prison at the time of the attack on June 23. In addition to Djalali, the authorities were also holding two French nationals, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, detained since May 2022. Following the June 23 attacks and damage to Section 209, where they were being held, fears grew that Kohler and Paris may have been injured or killed. Authorities did not disclose any information about their situation and whereabouts for a week. On July 1, a French diplomat was allowed to meet with them after their families demanded proof that they were alive.
On July 3, a relative of Kohler said that she and Paris had been brought before a judicial official and charged with “espionage for Israel,” “conspiracy to overthrow the Islamic Republic” and the capital offense of “corruption on earth.” The couple, who have been detained without access to independent lawyers for three years, had previously been accused of spying for France. During this period, they have only been allowed four extremely short visits with French consular authorities under surveillance and restrictive conditions, as detailed in France’s application instituting proceedings against Iran before the International Court of Justice.
In September 2022, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Iran’s state-run radio and television broadcaster, aired a “documentary” in which the couple are shown making self-incriminating statements including being “agents of French intelligence services” and “preparing the grounds for overthrowing the Islamic Republic,” in violation of their right to presumption of innocence and freedom from being subjected to ill-treatment.
The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and human rights groups have repeatedly highlighted Iranian authorities’ track record in using arbitrarily detained dual and foreign nationals as leverage and/or hostages.