On Saturday evening, a massive fire broke out at Tehran’s Evin Prison. Videos posted on social media show flames and smoke shooting up, billowing in the air, punctuated by the sound of gunfire and explosions. The lying Islamic Regime of Iran (IRI) claims prisoners – many political including some recently arrested in this month’s protests – set the fire. But shots were fired into the prison, with many prisoners injured and at least 8 killed.
“Families of inmates outside the prison were tear-gassed earlier in the day Saturday, and roads heading there were blocked by nightfall…. Videos posted online showed people in neighborhoods around Evin chanting ‘Death to the dictator,’ while others showed riot police on motorcycles heading to the prison,” the Washington Post reported.
The five weeks of protest since “morality” police killed Mahsa Jina Amini (Jina is her Kurdish name) are extraordinary; the freedom of women from the repressive regime has become central and, as more than 200 people (including at least 28 children) have been killed and energy workers are on political strike, the demand is becoming “death to the dictator!”
This fire and the actions of this regime give renewed urgency to support the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now. See Shirin Ebadi (2003 Nobel winner) on today’s Democracy Now for an update & overview on the fire and the political prisoners’ situation.
>> Sign, spread and donate to the publication of its Emergency Appeal: The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance—We Must Act Now.