The torture and inhuman mistreatment of detainees and prisoners in Iran are among the most serious violations of human rights in the country’s prisons.
In many cases, prisoners or detainees have died from injuries inflicted upon them in custody and yet the government has never acknowledged responsibility on a systemic level, allowing the perpetrators to go unpunished.
The torture and mistreatment of prisoners and detainees, long a grim feature of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s security establishment and judicial system, have attracted greater attention with the emergence of social media.
In particular, abuse in jails in remote parts of the country would never have been exposed without the internet.
In some cases, deaths were caused by inhumane living conditions and were exacerbated by the lack of medical care.
Iranian authorities have failed to provide accountability for at least 72 deaths in custody since January 2010, despite credible reports that they resulted from torture or other ill-treatment or the lethal use of firearms and tear gas by officials, according to a report by Amnesty International.
Amnesty noted that the real number of deaths in custody is likely much higher given the lack of transparency in Iran’s justice system and the fact that many human rights violations go unreported due to widespread fear of reprisal and systematic repression of civil society.
Dozens of political prisoners are among those who’ve perished in Iranian prisons.
In February 2021, Behnam Mahjoubi, a Sufi dervish imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin Prison, died from serious neurological issues after the State Medical Examiner concluded he could not withstand incarceration and recommended his release
Political prisoner Sassan Niknafs lost his life in the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary in June 2021 after the authorities ignored his multiple physical and mental health problems.
One of the most brutal and tragic examples of abuse of detainees was the death of dissident blogger Sattar Beheshti from internal bleeding, hemorrhaging in his lungs, liver, kidneys, and brain which followed the torture he endured while in police detention in November 2012.
Source: Iran Human Rights
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