Iran: Thousands of Prisoners at Risk

Click to expand Image An external view of the destruction of buildings in Evin prison's northern premises after the Israeli strikes on June 23, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. Photo taken on July 1, 2025.  © 2025 Majid Saeedi/Getty Images Thousands of detainees in Iran, including political prisoners and children, are at risk of injury and death from US and Israeli strikes, as well as atrocities by Iran’s authorities, including mass, secret, and arbitrary executions. Instead of releasing prisoners unconditionally or on humanitarian grounds, Iran’s authorities continue to carry out the arrests of real and perceived dissidents as well as arbitrary executions of political prisoners. UN member states should press Iran’s authorities to immediately release anyone arbitrarily detained, halt executions, and implement regulations that allow for the release or temporary leave of prisoners on humanitarian grounds. They should urge all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law and prioritize the protection of civilians.  (Beirut) – Thousands of detainees in Iran, including political prisoners and children, are at risk of injury and death from US and Israelistrikes, as well as atrocities by Iran’s authorities, including mass, arbitrary, and secret executions, Human Rights Watch and Kurdistan Human Rights Network said today. For decades, Iran’s authorities have carried out large-scale arbitrary detentions with impunity, detaining both real and perceived dissidents as well as debt prisoners. During the weeks preceding the start of the armed conflict on February 28, 2026, Iran’s authorities had carried out mass arbitrary detentions of tens of thousands of protesters, including children, as well as real and perceived dissidents, human rights defenders, lawyers, and medical workers. Many were held in secret and unofficial detention facilities run by security and intelligence bodies and subjected to enforced disappearances. “Prisoners, including thousands of arbitrarily detained people in Iran, are facing dual threats, violence at the hands of authorities who have a track record of prison massacres and US and Israeli bombs,” said Bahar Saba, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Unable to seek safety, detainees, many of whom never should have been detained in the first place, are facing human rights violations, serious injury, and death.”Human Rights Watch and Kurdistan Human Rights Network spoke with 12 people, including families of prisoners, human rights defenders, and informed sources with knowledge about several prisons, and reviewed reports by other human rights organizations, information shared on social media, official statements, and state media reports.“We have no options,” said a prisoner whose statement was shared with the organizations. “Here, we can neither protect ourselves from danger nor have [access to] any shelters.”  Since the start of the conflict, detainees, their families, and human rights organizations have repeatedly called on Iran’s authorities to release prisoners, including on humanitarian grounds. While a number of detainees have been released, including after posting exorbitant bail, the authorities have refused to release all those arbitrarily detained, in particular political prisoners, and to grant other prisoners temporary humanitarian leave. Instead, authorities continue to arrest activists, dissidents, members of ethnic and religious minorities, such as Kurds and Baha’is, and other people for allegedly taking footage or photographs of strikes and sending them to the media. On March 24, the police announced that 446 people had been arrested for “disturbing public opinion, creating fear and anxiety in society, undermining mental security, propaganda for the enemy, and inciting and organizing security-disrupting elements online.” The authorities have also been carrying out executions, including on politically motivated charges, heightening fears of mass, arbitrary, and secret executions under the shadow of the war. At least eight men were arbitrarily executed on charges such as “espionage,” “armed rebellion against the state through membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran,” and “waging war on God” between March 18 and 31. Interviewees, including relatives of prisoners, told researchers about the serious threats those detained face from the US and Israel’s military strikes as well as gross human rights violations by Iran’s authorities.“Prisoners in Evin have been hearing loud and terrifying explosions,” said the relative of a prisoner in the notorious Evin Prison. “They have felt them to have been very close, but their access is even more limited [than people outside] to know where the strikes are actually happening ... one of the nights when there were terrible explosions … at around 2:00 a.m., they could feel over 20 explosion shock waves in their ward in the span of an hour.” Police stations and security facilities run by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have been among the targets hit by Israel and US forces. Some of these facilities are commonly known to hold detainees, in particular those arrested for politically motivated charges, often held incommunicado and in circumstances that amount to enforced disappearances.Those detained are also facing deteriorating prison conditions in a system already known for poor conditions and systematic and deliberate denial of medical care to prisoners. Sources told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network and Human Rights Watch that since the start of the armed conflict there had been a drop in both the quantity and quality of food and that prisoners were denied access to medication and medical care outside of prison. “The amount of food prisoners receive has dropped and so has its quality,” a source said. “Even those who have severe medical conditions are not transferred outside [prison] for medical care … prisoners are not even taken to the prison clinic.”  Prisoners who protest deteriorating and unsafe prison conditions are at risk of reprisals and violence. The organizations received information that in at least three prisons, security forces have used force, including lethal force, to quash protests by prisoners who fear for their safety and/or object to poor prison conditions.  Iranian authorities have also been making repeated threats of further atrocities to prevent and stifle any form of dissent. On March 10, Ahmadreza Radan, the commander of the Islamic Republic’s police forces, known as FARAJA, warned, “we will not deem anyone who takes to the streets at the will of the enemies as a protester or anything else, but as the enemy [itself] and will [thus] treat them in the same manner that we would treat the enemy.” He said that security forces had “their fingers on the triggers.”  The next day, the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization issued a statement warning that any protests would be faced “with [even] a harsher blow than that of January 8,” when Iranian authorities carried out massacres of protesters.Iran’s domestic regulations provide for humanitarian release at times of crisis. A 1986 resolution by the Supreme Judicial Council allows for the conditional release or release on bail of prisoners during wartime emergencies. In addition, article 201 of Iran’s Prisons Regulations provides for the release of prisoners in certain circumstances, for example during other times of “crisis such as natural disasters, unforeseeable incidents, or outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases.” Under international humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war, prisons and detention facilities are presumptively civilian objects. Serious laws of war violations committed by individuals with criminal intent—that is, deliberately or recklessly—are war crimes.UN member states should press Iran’s authorities to immediately release all individuals arbitrarily detained, halt all planned executions, and implement domestic regulations that allow for the release or temporary leave of prisoners on humanitarian grounds, the two organizations said. They should further urge all parties to the conflict to prioritize the protection of civilians.“Instead of releasing prisoners, authorities are relentlessly arresting real and perceived dissidents and carrying out executions, once again putting on full display their absolute disregard for human life,” said Rebin Rahmani, a member of the broad of directors at Kurdistan Human Rights Network. “Many anxious families do not even know where their loved ones are being held as bombs and missiles hit different parts of cities on a daily basis.”Risk of Death and Injuries Due to Airstrikes Since February 28, Israel and the US have carried out thousands of strikes across Iran. According to reports by relatives of detainees, media, and human rights organizations, a number of strikes have targeted locations in proximity to prisons, including Evin Prison and the Greater Tehran Penitentiary, Isfahan Central Prison in Isfahan province, Mahabad Prison in West Azerbaijan province, and Zanjan Central Prison in Zanjan province, while at least one, Marivan Prison in Kurdistan province, is reported to have been damaged as a result of a strike. Relatives of Lindsay Foreman and Craig Foreman, a British couple detained in Iran since January 2025, have reported that on February 28 a strike near Evin Prison resulted in shattered windows and plaster raining down from the ceiling of the ward in which they were being held. An informed source told Human Rights Watch that prisoners in Zanjan Central Prison, where the arbitrarily detained human rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi is held, could also hear the sounds of airstrikes in the city and were terrified as they felt the explosion’s shock waves. On March 31, the Iranian Red Crecent said that its rescue teams had removed survivors from under the rubble after a strike on Zanjan’s Hossienieh Azam, which appears to be only several kilometers from the Zanjan Central Prison. According to information received by Human Rights Watch, Mohammadi’s health has been deteriorating in detention and she may have suffered a heart attack following denial of medical care. A source with information about a prison in central Iran told the organizations, “The night when there was a strike nearby, everyone was terrified and the guards did nothing to reassure them.” On March 13, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network raised concerns about the fate of detainees amid a wave of strikes on intelligence and security facilities across Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan provinces. One of the facilities reportedly struck was an IRGC-run intelligence center, Shahramfar base in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province. Based on extensive documentation by human rights organizations, the center has included a section used as a detention facility for decades. An informed source, whose relative had once been held in Shahramfar, told Human Rights Watch that the detention center was a “terrifying facility” used to hold dissidents, and that at any given time, a group of concerned families would be standing outside to inquire about their detained loved ones. The source also said that there was no information about the fate and whereabouts of a friend who had been arrested during the protests and was subsequently held in Shahramfar.  During the Israel-Iran conflict in June 2025, Human Rights Watch documented an unlawful attack by the Israeli forces on Evin Prison, an apparent war crime. The attack resulted in the killing and injury of scores of civilians, including prisoners. Prior to the attack, Iran’s authorities refused to take measures to protect prisoners despite prisoners’ repeated pleas with judicial, prosecutorial, and prison officials to release them or grant them humanitarian leave.Those arbitrarily detained in Iran include thousands of prisoners held for exercising their human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly; people convicted following grossly unfair trials, which are systematic and widespread; and debt prisoners whose numbers are reported to be over ten thousand. Article 11 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits the imprisonment of individuals who are unable to fulfill a contractual obligation.Deteriorating Prison Conditions Detainees, their families, and human rights organizations have also reported that the situation in prisons across the country, including in the provinces of Alborz, Fars, Gilan, Kermanshah, Lorestan, Qazvin, Qom, Razavi Khorasan, Tehran, West Azerbaijan, and Yazd, has been deteriorating. Prisoners face shortages of food and potable water, as well as limited access to basic necessities, medication, medical care, and visitation rights. Prison shops, where prisoners can buy goods such as food, are also reported to be facing shortages while their prices have significantly increased, so many prisoners can no longer afford them.  In a March 3 letter addressed to the head of the judiciary, the arbitrarily-detained human rights defender Reza Khandan wrotethat, “thousands of unlawfully detained prisoners are held in prisons without any reason, trapped under the threat of bombardments day and night, many services to prisoners have been cut off and if the war continues, shortages or [even] lack of food and hygiene [products] is foreseeable.” One source with knowledge about a prison in western Iran said that prisoners whose medication for chronic illnesses is provided by their families will soon run out of medication if this situation continues, as families were prevented from visiting jailed loved ones and authorities had not distributed the items families had brought for the prisoners. Another source with information about a facility in central Iran also said that they faced shortages of medication and that all “transfers to hospitals were cancelled … even a prisoner who fell seriously ill was not transferred outside [for medical care].”Information received by the organizations from the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary also points to a further deterioration of the facility’s already poor conditions, including overcrowding, reduction of food portions to half their regular size, and lack of access to potable water. An informed source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network that detainees arrested in connection with the protests were held in three halls in the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, each holding 250 to 300 people. Several detainees had been taken to the prison with serious injuries, including bullet wounds, and prisoners were held in insect-infested wards without access to adequate medical care, the source said. Media and human rights organizations reported that prisoners in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Alborz province have started a hunger strike to protest the deteriorating conditions, particularly the lack of access to sufficient food and medical care.Prisoners and their familieshave also reported restrictions imposed by the authorities on visitation rights and contact with the outside world, which has further compounded their anxiety. “They have not allowed any family visits since the start of the war,” said one source with knowledge about a prison in western Iran. “Prisoners who are mothers are particularly anxious for their children outside,” another source said.  Risk of Atrocities, Including Mass Arbitrary, Secret, and Summary Executions Since the start of the armed conflict on February 28, which came in the wake of the countrywide massacres of protesters and bystanders on January 8 and 9, Iran’s authorities have repeatedly threatened further atrocities. These threats are made by high-ranking commanders and state institutions that orchestrated the January massacres, and, as such, should be treated as serious and imminent. Detainees, many of whom have been arrested in connection with recent protests and held incommunicado or subjected to enforced disappearances remain particularly vulnerable and at risk of torture and ill-treatment. On March 24, the Baha’i International Community reported that authorities subjected Peyvand Naimi, a young Baha’i man arrested on January 8 in Kerman, to torture, including beatings, denial of food and water, prolonged solitary confinement, and mock executions on two occasions to coerce him into making self-incriminating statements. Based on reports from families of prisoners and human rights organizations, some detainees have been transferred to undisclosed locations, further heightening fears about their fate and safety. In some cases, authorities have refused to provide families with any information about the detainees’ fate and whereabouts, thus subjecting them to enforced disappearances. On March 3, human rights organizations and families of prisoners reported that detainees held in section 209 of Evin Prison, which is controlled by the Ministry of Intelligence, had been transferred to an undisclosed location. An informed source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network that detainees, both men and women, held in Section 2A of Evin Prison, which is controlled by the IRGC, were transferred to an IRGC base for several days following the start of the conflict. Some detainees were subsequently taken to an official prison, but the source had no information about the others. Based on information reviewed by Human Rights Watch and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, the authorities have also significantly increased the presence of security forces in prisons. An informed source with knowledge about a prison in central Iran said that three weeks into the war, senior prison officials told prisoners that prison guards had “pre-authorized shooting orders.” The source said that in addition to regular prison guards, anti-riot forces were deployed to the prison and authorities had tripled the number of guards stationed in the prison’s watch towers and at entrances. Another source with information about a prison in western Iran said that the prison was filled with security forces and that armed guards with rifles were stationed on the prison roof. There have also been reported crackdowns within Iran’s detention facilities. On March 5 and 6, Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that after a military strike in proximity to Mahabad Prison in West Azerbaijan province on March 3, security forces fired tear gas against prisoners who were scared and started protesting seeking to be released. Subsequently, 120 prisoners were transferred to the quarantine section of Miandoab Prison in the same province, where they were held in poor conditions without access to sufficient food.Two Balochi human rights defenders who had spoken with families of prisoners, and other informed sources in Chabahar in Sistan and Balouchistan, said that security forces used force, including lethal force, after protest broke out in Chabahar Prison on March 18, reportedly killing and injuring several prisoners. The protests are reported to have started following several days without food. Based on media reports, on March 2, following several strikes around the Greater Tehran Penitentiary, prisoners who attempted to leave their wards in fear were violently repressed. The strikes were reported to have resulted in shattered glasses and damage to walls. Fears of mass, summary, secret, and arbitrary executions have also been increasing amid a significant escalation in the authorities’ use of the death penalty over the past years, particularly in 2025, including as a tool of political repression and an ongoing communications blackout that further hinders independent reporting. On March 18, Mizan News Agency, owned and operated by Iran’s judiciary, announced that Kourosh Keyvani, a Swedish-Iranian dual national, had been executed for “intelligence cooperation and espionage in favor of the Israeli government.” Keyvani is reportedly the third man to be arbitrarily executed over allegations of espionage for or collaboration with Israel in 2026. At least 13 men were arbitrarily executed on similar charges in 2025, the vast majority after the 12-day armed conflict with Israel.  On March 19, Mizan News Agency announced that three people—the 19-year-old wrestling champion Saleh Mohammadi and two other young men, Saeed Davoudi and Mehdi Ghassemi—had been executed earlier in the day over allegations of involvement in the deaths of two members of security forces during the nationwide protests of December 2025 and January 2026. Their arbitrary executions were carried out following grossly unfair and summary proceedings that lasted just over two months, from the time of arrest to the implementation of sentences. Human Rights Watch reviewed the verdict issued by a criminal court in Qom against Mohammadi and Davoudi, which shows that both defendants retracted their “confessions” in court saying they were extracted under torture, but the court dismissed their testimony without any investigation. Human Rights Watch received information that Mohammadi was held in stress positions and beaten. Mizan News Agency reported that the executions were carried out “in the presence of a group of people in Qom,” indicating that they were carried out in public, in violation of the absolute prohibition against torture and other ill-treatment. On March 30, authorities arbitrarily executedAli Akbar Daneshvarkar and Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi, on the charge of “armed rebellion through membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.” The next day, two other men, Pouya Ghobadi and Babak Alipour, were executed on the same charges. The men, codefendants in one case, had been sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in Tehran following a grossly unfair trial. Human rights organizations reported that the authorities did not provide advance notice to the men’s families and lawyers, in violation of both international law and Iran’s domestic regulations. Two other political prisoners sentenced to death in the same case, Vahid Baniamerian and Abolhassan Montazer, are at imminent risk of execution. On March 31, Amnesty International reported that another five young men, Mohammad Amin Biglari, Ali Fahim, Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani, Amirhossein Hatami, Shahin Vahedparast Kolo, had been transferred from Ghezel Hesar Prison to an undisclosed location, sparking fears of their imminent execution. All five were sentenced to death in connection with alleged offences committed in the context of the December 2025 and January 2026 protests.Iranian authorities’ track record of committing mass atrocities in prisons has further heightened concerns for prisoners. In 1988, authorities extrajudicially executed thousands of imprisoned political dissidents in prisons across the country, known as the “1988 prison massacres.” The massacres constituted crimes against humanity.

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