Human Rights Watch:

Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s Evin prison complex in Tehran on June 23, 2025, were unlawfully indiscriminate and an apparent war crime, Human Rights Watch said today. The strikes hit several buildings across the complex and killed at least 80 people, according to official Iranian statements, including prisoners, their family members, and prison staff, in the absence of any evident military target.

Over 1,500 prisoners are believed to have been held at Evin prison at the time of the attack, including many activists and dissidents held by the Iranian government in violation of their rights. The strikes, during visiting hours, significantly damaged the visitation hall, central kitchen, medical clinic, and sections where prisoners were held, including political prisoners.

“Israel’s strikes on Evin prison on June 23 killed and injured scores of civilians without any evident military target in violation of the laws of war and is an apparent war crime,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The Israeli attack placed at grave risk the already precarious lives of Evin’s prisoners, many of them wrongfully detained dissidents and activists.”

Between June 24 and July 29, Human Rights Watch interviewed 22 people about the attack, including relatives of victims and prisoners, former Evin prisoners, and others with extensive knowledge of the prison. Human Rights Watch wrote to Iranian and Israeli authorities on July 2 and 7, respectively, seeking information but has not received responses.

Human Rights Watch also analyzed and verified videos and photographs of the Israeli strikes published by media outlets and on social media, as well as material shared directly with researchers, and satellite imagery from before and after the strikes. Human Rights Watch was unable to visit the site, as Iran does not permit access to independent human rights organizations.

The investigation into the June 23 attack on Evin prison is part of a broader Human Rights Watch inquiry into the June 13-25 hostilities between Israel and Iran, including Iranian ballistic missile attacks on populated areas in Israel.

Israeli forces carried out strikes on Evin prison, a 43-hectare compound in Tehran’s District 1, between 11:17 a.m. and 12:18 p.m. on June 23. No advance warning is known to have been given. Satellite imagery, videos, and witness accounts show strikes damaging buildings hundreds of meters apart.

The strikes destroyed the prison’s main southern entrance and another in the north. The visitors’ information building, adjacent to the main entrance, was completely destroyed. Family members of prisoners and former prisoners said that many families frequent the visitors’ building, including to deliver clothing and medicine. The strikes also hit the visitation hall, a judicial complex housing assistant prosecutors, and significantly damaged or destroyed several buildings in the prison’s central premises, where the medical clinic and several prison wards are located. 

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