What to Know About Iran’s Notorious Evin Prison – The New York Times
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Israel bombs entrance of notorious Iranian Evin prison where political prisoners held
Israel bombs entrance of notorious Iranian Evin prison where political prisoners held. Other sites on the hit list included the security headquarters of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, Palestine Square, and the paramilitary Basij volunteer corps. Video clips captured a gate being blown open at the location. No fatalities have been reported from the Evin explosion, but the narrative continues to unfold as both Iran and Israel scramble to evaluate the aftermath of today’s assaults. The prison is notorious for alleged torture techniques relayed by prisoners, including beatings, electric shocks, mock executions, extended solitary confinement, coerced confessions, and worse. The judiciary, through its Mizan news agency, assured, “The situation in the prison is under control and all means have been used to manage the prison complex”
Evin prison, in the heart of Tehran was one of the IRGC strongholds bombed by Israel today
Footage shows the prison blast (Image: X )
Israel bombed the entrance to Iran’s infamous Evin prison, notorious for its detention and often brutal treatment of political dissenters.
Located in the core of Tehran, Evin prison was among the IRGC strongholds targeted by Israeli bombings today. Other sites on the hit list included the security headquarters of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, Palestine Square, and the paramilitary Basij volunteer corps, an affiliate of the Revolutionary Guard.
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“The Iranian dictator will be punished with full force for attacking the Israeli home front,” declared the Defense Ministry. The judiciary, through its Mizan news agency, assured, “The situation in the prison is under control and all means have been used to manage the prison complex.”
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Smoke rises over Tehran after Evin prison was hit (Image: UGC/AFP via Getty Images )
While it confirmed some damage to parts of the prison, it did not provide further details. Video clips captured a gate being blown open at the location, reports the Express US.
As of now, no fatalities have been reported from the Evin explosion, but the narrative continues to unfold as both Iran and Israel scramble to evaluate the aftermath of today’s assaults.
“The IDF is currently striking with unprecedented force regime targets and governmental repression bodies in the heart of Tehran, including the Basij headquarters, the Evin Prison for political prisoners and regime opponents, the ‘Destruction of Israel’ clock in Palestine Square, the internal security headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideology headquarters, and other regime targets,” Katz stated.
Evin prison is notorious for detaining ‘dual nationals’ and ‘Westerners’, which Iran notoriously employs as leverage in diplomatic wranglings with Western nations.
Boasting sections expressly for political inmates and those connected to the West, Evin operates under the tight control of the Revolutionary Guard—a force answering solely to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Subjected to U.S. and European Union sanctions, the prison is infamous for alleged torture techniques relayed by prisoners, including beatings, electric shocks, mock executions, extended solitary confinement, coerced confessions, and worse.
More footage from Iran’s national media of the strike on Evin (Image: X )
Citing a Wall Street Journal report based on discussions with Israeli insiders, “Israel is looking to wrap up the operation soon.”
Nevertheless, these sources convey that “Iran still feels it has to respond to US strikes on Sunday.”
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Yet another Israeli official conveyed to The Times of Israel that Israel stands ready to conclude its military actions, conditional upon Iran halting their nuclear enhancement process. “It depends on Iran, not on us. We are happy to wrap it up now; if there’s an agreement at the end, Israel will be content with the result,” the official communicated.
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Israel says Evin Prison in Tehran was used for “operations against the State of Israel” Other targets included Basij headquarters, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ internal security command centers.
Israeli aircraft struck the prison Monday morning.
Iranian authorities used the prison to hold citizens whom they suspected of spying for Israel.
Israel struck several government-related targets in Tehran Monday morning. Other than Evin Prison, the targets included the Basij headquarters, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ internal security command centers, the “countdown clock to Israel’s destruction” in Palestine Square, as well as the regime’s ideological command center.
Footage on social media shows the strike on Evin Prison focused on its main gate. Iranian newspaper Mizan reported that parts of the prison were damaged.
Dramatic footage shows Israel striking Iran’s most notorious prison, blowing doors off hinges
The most intense bombing yet of government sites around Tehran came a day after the US joined Israel’s war on thwarting the Islamic Republic from being able to build nuclear bombs. “Viva la libertad!” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote alongside video of the doors being blown clean off their hinges. The heavily fortified center is where the Mullahs have kept thousands of political prisoners, journalists, academics and human rights activists locked up since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The prison was just one target as more than 100 munitions were dropped on Tehran in just two hours, Israel’s military claims. Another strike hit a clock in Palestine Square in Tehran, which symbolically counted down to the “destruction of Israel” and was installed by the regime in 2017, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said. The clock counts down until 2040, the year by which the Islamist regime claims Israel will collapse.
The most intense bombing yet of government sites around Tehran came a day after the US joined Israel’s war on thwarting the Islamic Republic from being able to build nuclear bombs.
“The Iranian dictator will be punished with full force for attacking the Israeli home front,” Israel’s Defense Ministry said of the latest attacks.
5 The prison before an Israeli airstrike hit it. Storyful
5 Moments after an Israeli strike hit the notorious prison in Tehran. Storyful
Shocking security footage shows one missile strike blasting open the doors of Evin Prison, where the Islamic Republic held its opponents and critics in brutal conditions, with public hangings.
Teh strike allowed an unknown number of those political prisoners to flee, according to Iran International, an outlet that opposes Tehran’s leadership.
“Viva la libertad!” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote alongside video of the doors being blown clean off their hinges.
5 Political prisoners making clothing for the Iran-Iraq War effort in a workshop at Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran in 1986. Getty Images
“We warned Iran time and again: stop targeting civilians! They continued, including this morning,” he wrote.
Read the latest on the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities:
Iran’s regime confirmed the strike on the prison and said sections had been damaged.
“In the latest attack by the Zionist regime on Tehran, projectiles unfortunately struck Evin prison, causing damage to parts of the facility,” the pro-government Mizan Online outlet reported.
The heavily fortified center in Iran’s capital is where the Mullahs have kept thousands of political prisoners, journalists, academics and human rights activists locked up since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
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Built in 1971 under the previous regime of the Shah in the hills of northern Tehran, the prison has been the site of numerous atrocities over the past 50 years.
In 1988, thousands of political prisoners were executed on the orders of the Ayatollah following cursory trials, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.
The prison was just one target as more than 100 munitions were dropped on Tehran in just two hours, Israel’s military claims.
Further Israeli strikes on Tehran have hit the headquarters of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the country’s elite military force, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman said.
5 This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. AP
Many IRGC soldiers were killed in the strikes, the IDF claims.
Another strike hit a clock in Palestine Square in Tehran, which symbolically counted down to the “destruction of Israel” and was installed by the regime in 2017, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
The clock counts down until 2040, the year by which the Islamist regime claims Israel will collapse.
5 The site of clashes in a ward of Evin prison from 2022. AP
“The IDF is currently striking with unprecedented force regime targets and governmental repression bodies in the heart of Tehran, including the Basij headquarters, the Evin Prison for political prisoners and regime opponents, the ‘Destruction of Israel’ clock in Palestine Square, the internal security headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideology headquarters, and other regime targets,” Katz said in a statement.
Further strikes in Iran hit the access roads to the Fordow nuclear facility, one of three sites in Iran hit during US air strikes over the weekend.
The strikes were intended to “disrupt” accessibility to the underground nuclear enrichment center, the IDF claimed.
Live updates: Trump claims US ‘obliterated’ Iran nuclear sites; world awaits response from Khamenei
The US and Iran have maintained back-channel communications throughout the current crisis. The understanding among US officials is that the 86-year-old Khamenei will need to sign off on any major diplomatic decisions. US officials believe he is in hiding amid the ongoing conflict to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has remained in contact with Iranian officials since US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, two sources familiar the matter said, as the administration continues to seek out a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.
But his efforts are facing significant challenge from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been exceedingly difficult for Iranian officials to reach after he retreated to a hidden location amid escalating tensions, the sources said.
The understanding among US officials is that the 86-year-old Khamenei will need to sign off on any major diplomatic decisions. But getting information to and from him has become more difficult.
That has left communications between the US and the Iranians — either directly or through intermediaries — somewhat halting, officials said.
Khamenei has not delivered any recorded messages since the US strikes. And US officials believe he is in hiding amid the ongoing conflict to avoid assassination.
Nonetheless, Trump said he hopes that after the weekend strikes, Iran will return to negotiations that had been largely deadlocked before Israel began its attacks this month.
The US and Iran have maintained back-channel communications throughout the current crisis. Before the weekend strikes, the US conveyed a message that the actions would be contained and that Trump was still seeking to resolve the matter diplomatically, officials said.
Dem divide on U.S. strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites
The Atlantic’s Arash Azizi talks to Iranian insiders in the Islamic Republic about covert conversations about potential regime change in Tehran. In The Times of Israel, Yossi Klein Halevi posits that the military confrontation between Israel and Iran was an inevitable byproduct of Tehran’s intransigence over its nuclear program. The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman considers the global forces at play following the U.S. bombing of three of Iran’s nuclear sites. The Wall Street Journal’s Elliot Kaufman looks at how Israel destroyed Iran’s planned multifront onslaught against the Jewish state. The Daily Beast’s John Sutter looks at the global struggle between the forces of inclusion and those of resistance. The Atlantic’s ArashAzizi also talks to former President Hassan Rouhani, who is being considered for a key role on the leadership committee.
Whipping ‘Six Armies’: The Wall Street Journal’s Elliot Kaufman looks at how Israel destroyed Iran’s planned multifront onslaught against the Jewish state. “In Israel, where everyone has had to become an Iran expert, a video clip has been making the rounds. It’s from a 2021 speech by Gholam Ali Rashid, commander of Iran’s joint military headquarters, whom Israel killed in early strikes on June 13. Three months before the 2020 U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani, Rashid recounts, the legendary Quds Force commander laid out his life’s work. ‘I have assembled for you six armies outside Iran and I have created a corridor 1,500 kilometers long and 1,000 kilometers wide, all the way to the shores of the Mediterranean,’ Soleimani told Iran’s army chiefs. ‘Any enemy that decides to fight against the Islamic Revolution, and against the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, will have to go through these six armies. It won’t be able to do so.’ Yet Israel did.” [WSJ]
The Inevitable War: In The Times of Israel, Yossi Klein Halevi posits that the military confrontation between Israel and Iran was an inevitable byproduct of Tehran’s intransigence over its nuclear program. “Israel’s strike on Iran is the culmination of the war that began on October 7. Hamas’s massacre of Israelis was not an expression of an oppressed people revolting against occupation, as much of the world believes; it was the latest phase of the radical Islamist war against Israel’s existence. What began on October 7 was the Israeli-Iranian war. For the last 18 months, we have been fighting Iran’s proxies. Now, finally and inevitably, we have taken the war to its source.” [TOI]
The Coup Plotters: The Atlantic’s Arash Azizi talks to Iranian insiders in the Islamic Republic about covert conversations about potential regime change in Tehran. “Among the details they shared with me are that former President Hassan Rouhani, who is not involved in the discussions, is being considered for a key role on the leadership committee, and that some of the military officials involved have been in regular contact with their counterparts from a major Gulf country, seeking buy-in for changing Iran’s trajectory and the composition of its leadership. ‘Ours is just one idea,’ one person involved in conversations told me. ‘Tehran is now full of such plots. They are also talking to Europeans about the future of Iran. Everybody knows Khamenei’s days are numbered. Even if he stays in office, he won’t have actual power.’” [TheAtlantic]
Civilizational Struggle: The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman considers the global forces at play following the U.S. bombing of three of Iran’s nuclear sites. “To my mind, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the sole aim of wiping its democracy off the map and absorbing it into Russia, and the attacks on Israel in 2023 by Hamas and Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, were manifestations of a global struggle between the forces of inclusion and the forces of resistance. That is a struggle between countries and leaders who see the world and their nations benefiting from more trade, more cooperation against global threats and more decent, if not democratic, governance — versus regimes whose leaders thrive on resisting those trends because conflict enables them to keep their people down, their armies strong and their thieving of their treasuries easy.” [NYTimes]