Iranian state news media reported on Sunday that 71 people were killed during the war in an Israeli attack on Evin Prison, a notorious detention facility in Tehran where dissidents and political prisoners are held.
Detainees, visiting relatives and prison staff were among the dead, according to a statement from a spokesman for Iran’s judiciary that was carried by the state news agency IRNA. The spokesman, Asghar Jahangir, did not provide names — heightening the concerns of some detainees’ families, who said they have not heard from their loved ones since the June 23 strike.
Among Evin’s thousands of inmates are hundreds of political prisoners, including opposition politicians, activists, lawyers, journalists and students. The prison also holds prominent non-Iranian or dual-citizen detainees, many of whom Iran has accused of spying. Rights groups say torture and executions are routine at Evin, and former prisoners have described being subjected to long interrogations, torture, rape, psychological humiliation and solitary confinement.
Israel’s defense ministry declined to comment and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the statement by Mr. Jahangir, and his claims could not be independently verified.
When the Israeli military struck the prison on June 23, the country’s defense minister said it was one of several targets that included the headquarters of the Basij, a volunteer force under the umbrella of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that has brutally cracked down on protesters in Iran. The attacks came amid Israel’s broader assault on sites associated with Iran’s regime during the 12-day war, which ended last week with a cease-fire.
More than 600 Iranians were killed over the course of the war, according to Iran’s health ministry. Last week, Iranian media reported that the strike on Evin prison had killed Ali Ghanaatkar — the detention facility’s top prosecutor. Mr. Ghanaatkar had interrogated and was in charge of the cases against dissidents including the Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, dual nationals like the British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliff and political prisoners jailed in the notorious prison.
But further details about the strike on the prison — where communications are restricted — have been hard to come by.
“Where are our prisoners?” Aida Younesi, whose brother, Ali Younesi, has been detained since 2020, posted on X on Sunday. She listed her brother’s name along with those of several other detainees, saying they were “just some of the prisoners we haven’t heard from in days.”
After the attack, IRNA reported that detainees had been transferred from Evin to other prisons in Tehran Province, but did not specify where or how many. On Sunday, Ms. Mohammadi, who is on furlough from prison, criticized the Iranian authorities for keeping prisoners’ families in the dark.
“Many families of the detained are unaware of the status or whereabouts of their loved ones,” she wrote in a statement that was signed by 21 other prominent former prisoners, activists and cultural figures.
In the statement on Sunday, Mr. Jahangir said only that the attack had killed detainees, relatives who were at the prison for visits or judicial appointments, administrative staff at the prison, conscript soldiers and Tehran residents who lived near the facility, according to IRNA and the Mizan news agency, which is overseen by the judiciary.
IRNA had initially reported that Israeli projectiles had caused “damage to parts of the facility.” On Sunday, Mizan reported that Evin’s clinic, technical engineering building, visitation hall and judicial office had been struck.
The attack also caused “extensive financial and physical damage to neighbors” of the prison, Mizan quoted Mr. Jahangir as saying.
Vivian Yee is a Times reporter covering North Africa and the broader Middle East. She is based in Cairo.
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