October 08, 2021
Amnesty International last month accused the Islamic Republic of killing at least 72 prisoners in the last decade and never doing anything to stop its prison staff from mistreating prisoners.
Just 10 days after Amnesty issued its report, the prison organization announced September 26 that two more prisoners had died at the Grand Tehran Prison about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital. It said it had formed a committee to probe the deaths of the pair.
Amnesty International said Iranian authorities have failed to provide accountability for at least 72 deaths in custody since January 2010, despite credible reports that they resulted from torture or other ill-treatment or the lethal use of firearms and tear gas by officials.
The findings said that since January 2010, at least 72 deaths occurred at 42 prisons and detention centers in 16 provinces across the country. AI said not a single official has ever been held to account for these deaths, which it said reflect “Iran’s long-standing crisis of impunity where allegations of torture and unlaw- ful killings consistently go uninvestigated and unpunished.”
AI said in 46 of the deaths-in-custody, informed sources including relatives and/or fellow inmates reported the deaths resulted from physical torture or other ill-treatment at the hands of intelligence and security agents or prison officials. A further 15 followed the lethal use of firearms and/or tear gas by prison security guards to suppress prison protests over Covid-19 safety fears. In the remaining 11 cases, the deaths occurred in suspicious circumstances, but no further details about potential causes were available, AI said. The majority of the deaths recorded took place since 2015.
On its website, Amnesty International posted the names of those who have died along with their reported ages and the dates and locations of death. The list excludes dozens of cases of deaths in custody with suspected links to the denial of medical care, which the organization said it is in the process of investigating.
Amnesty International said it believes that the real number of deaths in custody is much higher, given the lack of transparency in Iran’s justice system and the fact that many human rights violations go unreported due to widespread fear of reprisal and systematic repression of civil society.
According to the information compiled by Amnesty International, at least nine people died in facilities run by the investigation unit of Iran’s police (Agahi), 11 in facilities run by the Ministry of Intelligence, two in facilities run by police patrols, two in facilities run by border guards, and one person each in facilities run by Iran’s Cyber Police (FATA) and the Pasdaran.
Iranian authorities typically
blame deaths in custody on suicide, drug overdose or illness without conducting any independent or transparent investigations, AI said.