Deadly fire erupted in Iran jail as police clashed with inmates: Sources

Two days before a fire ripped through a section of Iran's Evin prison and killed at least eight people, a riot police unit arrived at the compound and began to patrol the corridors, banging batons on cell doors, six sources told Reuters.

The patrols at the Tehran jail began without any apparent provocation by inmates, the sources said. These patrols continued from Thursday to Saturday, when some prisoners reacted by shouting for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, echoing protests raging across Iran since September.

"Then we heard shots and chants ... by prisoners in other wards," said an inmate inside ward 8, which mostly holds prisoners convicted of financial crimes.

The prisoner, who was giving his account for the first time, spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, and that no mention was made of the method of communication.

The bloody crackdown by the police and the deadly fire on the evening of October 15 — whose origins are disputed — have shaken a society (that is already on edge) after a month of violence involving security forces and anti-government protesters.

Reuters' interviews with the ward 8 prisoner, as well as a relative of an inmate and four rights activists with contacts at the prison suggest the inmates' anti-government chants were a reaction to the police patrols and that police then responded forcefully to suppress them.

The prisoner and other sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, due to a concern for their safety.

Reuters was unable to determine why the riot police were sent to the jail, what the government's motives were for the crackdown, and how the fire started.

This adds to a growing sense of the authorities' determination to crush dissent and avoid losing control of Evin or other places, four rights activists said.

Wave of unrest

The prison, in Tehran's Evin neighbourhood, has been the main site for holding prominent Iranian political prisoners. It also holds inmates convicted of ordinary crimes, and is now receiving a stream of dissidents arrested in the continuing wave of unrest sweeping the country, Iranian authorities, prisoners families and lawyers say.

The prison is known as "Evin University", because of the many anti-government intellectuals and academics held there.

Eight prisoners died of smoke inhalation as a result of the fire, the judiciary said. Inmates and rights activists interviewed by Reuters feared that more lives were lost.

The assessment was based on the dozens of injured, many severely so, seen by the inmate and those prisoners in contact with the activists interviewed by Reuters.

Reuters sought comment from prison officials, the Interior Ministry and officials at the judiciary via telephone and by sending written text messages with questions regarding key points, including the account by sources about the deployment of riot police on October 13. They have not responded.

One Iranian official, who was reached by telephone but declined to be identified by name or the institution he worked for, said he did not know why the riot police were sent to the prison, and expressed surprise that the authorities seemed to have lost control of the facility for a time on Saturday evening.

One anti-government activist, speaking on condition of anonymity due to concerns for his security, told Reuters that the government may have planned the prison crackdown in order to demonstrate to protesters the harsh form of detention that awaited them at Evin if they kept challenging the government.

'Like a war zone'

Amnesty International said it had evidence — which it did not disclose — that the authorities sought to justify their bloody crackdown under the guise of battling the fire and preventing prisoner escapes.

The group also said prison officials and riot police repeatedly subjected many prisoners to brutal beatings with batons, particularly on their heads and faces.

The country was already tense on the evening of October 15, when videos on social media showed a fire and plumes of smoke rising from the prison as gunshots rang out, and objects were seen being thrown into the complex.

Around the country, security forces were struggling to contain nationwide demonstrations triggered by the death last month of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, while in the custody of Iran's moral police.

On the night of the fire, state media reported that a group of prisoners were trying to escape, and had stepped on a minefield outside the complex.

This version was denied on Sunday by the judiciary, which said that a prison workshop had been set on fire at mid-evening on Saturday, "after a fight among a number of prisoners".

The prisoner and activists said no inmates could have been at the workshop in mid-evening, because they would have been locked in at that time. Evin's cells are shut between 5pm and 6pm, depending on prayer times.

Reuters could not independently determine what triggered the blaze.