C T Online Desk: A fire and clashes erupted at Tehran’s Evin prison Saturday night as the protest movement sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody entered a fifth week.
The facility in northern Tehran is infamous for the ill-treatment of political prisoners and also holds foreign detainees. Hundreds of those detained during the demonstrations over Amini’s death have reportedly been sent there.
Flames and a plume of smoke could be seen billowing into the night sky, and the sound of what appeared to be gunfire could be heard in video footage shared on Twitter by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights.
“A fire is spreading in Evin prison” and an “explosion was heard” from the facility, the 1500tasvir social media channel, which monitors protests and police violations, said on Twitter.
Chants of “Death to the dictator” — one of the main slogans of a month-long protest movement that has flared over the death of Amini — could be heard in the background of the video.
Amini, 22, died on September 16, three days after falling into a coma following her arrest by Iran’s morality police over an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Iranian state media said early Sunday that the fire caused during “riots and clashes” at the prison had been extinguished.
Citing a Tehran prosecutor, the IRNA news agency said the situation was now calm and that the clashes had “nothing to do with the recent unrest in the country”. IRNA earlier reported at least eight injured at the jail.
At least 108 people have been killed in the Amini protests, and at least 93 more have died in separate clashes in Zahedan, capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, according to Iran Human Rights.
