IranWire:

By ROGHAYEH REZAEI

45 days after Israeli missiles struck Evin Prison, hundreds of shackled political prisoners were loaded onto buses and returned to the detention center they had left in the chaos of war.

For six men sentenced to death, however, the journey ended differently.

Guards dragged them - bloodied and beaten - into the isolation cells of Qezelhesar Prison, known among inmates as “the execution platform.”

According to prisoner advocates and sources inside Iran’s penal system, the transfers are part of an effort by Iranian authorities to exploit the disruption caused by Israel’s June attack on Evin Prison.

The goal, they say, is to break up organized resistance among political prisoners and carry out long-delayed executions.

“The Islamic Republic was really waiting for such an opportunity,” said a civil activist in Iran.

The activist said authorities wanted to “take those it wants to execute to Qezelhesar without resistance” and “break that unique unity among political prisoners.”

The six men now facing imminent execution - Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, Mohammad Taghavi, Akbar Daneshvarkar, Vahid Bani-Amerian, and Babak Shahbazi - had been sentenced to death on charges including “rebellion and membership in the Mojahedin-e Khalq organization” and “spying for Israel.”

Before the June attack, their fellow prisoners had successfully blocked previous transfer attempts through organized protests and acts of solidarity.

The sequence of events began when Israeli missiles targeted Evin Prison as part of broader strikes against Iran.

In the immediate aftermath, hundreds of prisoners, including dozens of political detainees, were evacuated to Fashafoyeh Prison, officially known as Greater Tehran Prison.

What they found there shocked even those accustomed to Iran’s harsh penal conditions.

“American and Israeli bombardment didn’t kill us. The Islamic Republic brought us to a place where it practically kills us,” said Mahvash Seyedal, a female political prisoner, in an audio message from Qarchak women’s prison, where female political detainees were sent.

Soheil Arabi, a former political prisoner who has been held at Fashafoyeh multiple times, described it as a “torture chamber” for Iran’s most marginalized populations.

The prison, he said, has 32 units, with only six equipped with adequate beds, guards, and basic facilities.

“Each ward has 16 rooms, and each room has 15 beds. But usually, in the general wards, more than 35 people are imprisoned, meaning 20 people are deprived of beds,” Arabi explained.

Prisoners without beds sleep on corridor floors, enduring constant foot traffic, kicks, and verbal abuse throughout the night.

The facility is infested with cockroaches, rats, and occasionally snakes. Prisoners receive minimal hygiene supplies, including one bar of soap, one small bottle of shampoo, and 400 grams of laundry powder per month, for cells that hold 25 people.

Water cuts lasting several hours occur daily, forcing prisoners to buy overpriced bottled water. Every two months, inmates receive a single 3-gram tube of toothpaste - without a toothbrush.

The harsh conditions at Fashafoyeh appeared to accomplish what Iranian authorities could not achieve through confrontation: weakening the solidarity that had protected condemned prisoners from execution.

For months before the Israeli attack, political prisoners at Evin had organized “No to Execution Tuesdays” and other coordinated resistance activities.

When guards attempted to transfer inmates on death row, others would unite to physically block the removals.

“Guards would come, but political prisoners would stand united so they couldn’t take them,” said a source who spoke to IranWire. “But now, unfortunately, they took advantage of this opportunity and transferred these prisoners. The danger of their execution is very serious.”

The return to Evin on the morning of August 8 was marked by systematic violence designed to crush any remaining resistance.

According to multiple accounts, special guards and Ministry of Intelligence officers severely beat the six men while forcing other prisoners to watch. When fellow inmates protested, they too were attacked.

80-year-old political prisoner Abolfazl Qadyani was beaten until blood streamed from his forehead.

Mohammad Najafi, an imprisoned lawyer, “rubbed the blood on his face and shouted that this blood is honor and you have no honor.”

Prominent political prisoner Mostafa Tajzadeh was among those injured. His wife, Fakhrossadat Mohtashamipour, later posted on Instagram that two guards had pinned him down to handcuff him “savagely.”

Back at Evin, prison officials implemented a new strategy to prevent future organizing.

Political prisoners who had previously been housed together in Ward 4 were scattered across different cells in Ward 8, with no more than three or four in each room.

“Most political prisoners were previously all in Ward 4 and three or four rooms. But now they scattered them all to prevent their unity,” the source explained.

The transfers were overseen by Hamid Mahmoudi, former head of Ward 8, and Saeed Ghasemi, head of Ward 4 and former deputy protection officer - both officials with extensive records of prisoner suppression who continued threatening inmates after their return.

The broader context includes Iran’s increasing use of executions as a tool of political repression.

The targeting of political prisoners amid regional military tensions highlights the intersection of Iran’s domestic crackdowns with broader Middle East conflicts.

While Israeli missiles damaged prison infrastructure, Iranian authorities appear to have weaponized the chaos to advance their campaign against internal dissent.

“At least we hope that information dissemination and international community pressure can prevent the execution of these gentlemen whose lives are really in danger,” the Iranian civil activist said.

Go to link