Evin Prison

Notable prisoners at Evin before the 1979 revolution include Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani and Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri. A prisoner held after the Islamic revolution was Marina Nemat, spent two years in Evin from 1982, she participated in anti regime protests at her school. She has written about her torture and the death of her fellow students at the prison.[9]

Political prisoners of note held at Evin have included Akbar Ganji (held there from 2000 to 2006), Mohsen Sazegara (in 2003), Nasser Zarafshan, as well as Hamid Pourmand (2005–06), Dariush Zahedi, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, on charges of espionage (2003), subsequently acquitted in 2004, and Ramin Jahanbegloo (2006).

On 23 June 2003, Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested for taking photographs in front of the prison, and died of blunt trauma to the head, while imprisoned. The Iranian government said that she died from a stroke while being interrogated. Doctors examining Kazemi's body found evidence of rape, torture and a skull fracture.[10][11]

At dawn on 27 July 2008, the Iranian government executed a total of 29 people at Evin Prison by hanging.[12]

Iranian music producer and composer, Hangi Tavakoli was held in solitary cell in section 209 from December 2008 to February 2009 for crime of "Action Against National Security" because of some of the music he had written and produced, which Iranian Government had labeled them as "Brainwashing Against the Government". He had a sentence of execution, death by hanging; but due to the raise of human rights campaigns initiated by members of public, Iranian Justice System was pushed to reduce the sentence to 3-month jail time and US$100.000 penalty, conditioned to a full stop on all his musical activities. Tavakoli now is a renowned record producer and continues producing music outside of Iran.

Esha Momeni, a student at the California State University, Northridge, was held at Evin after her arrest on 15 October 2008, for crimes against national security.[13] She was in Iran to visit family and research women's rights in the country.[14][15] Momeni was released 11 November 2008.[16]

On 17 November 2008, Ali Ashtari, a computer wholesaler who provided intelligence about Iran's nuclear facilities to Mossad, was executed by hanging at Evin Prison after being convicted in June 2008.[17] Later that same month, Journalist/blogger Hossein Derakhshan was held at Evin after his arrest in November 2008, allegedly for spying for Israel. Derakhshan was sentenced to 19½ years in prison on 28 September 2010.[18]

Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist, was arrested in January 2009 for reporting without press credentials with a charge of espionage added in April. She was held in the Evin Prison until her release in May 2009.[19][20]

French student Clotilde Reiss stood trial in August 2009.

Over the years, Iranian converts to Christianity have been detained as well. On 5 March 2009 Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad and Maryam Rustampoor were arrested by Iranian security forces and labeled "anti-government activists".[21] The women were held at Evin Prison. On 18 November 2009, they were released without bail but the charges remained intact.[22] In May 2010 Maryam and Marzieh were cleared of all charges.[23]

Three Belgian tourists, Vincent Boon-Falleur, Idesbald Van den Bosch and Diego Mathieu, were detained in Evin Prison for 3 months in 2009. Idesbald and Vincent were arrested on 5 September 2009, for entering an unmarked Iranian Military Zone near Semnan, and were detained in Semnan for 3 days, before being transferred to Evin. Mathieu was later (16 September) arrested at the Iran-Turkmenistan border, because the three had met on 4 September and exchanged phone numbers. The three were accused of spying and detained for three months (8 September—8 December 2009) in Section 209 of the Evin Prison, initially in solitary confinement, and then in 4-person cells with other Iranians. They were released thanks to Belgian diplomatic negotiations.[24][25]

Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was imprisoned in Evin for 118 days, after being in Iran while there on assignment to cover the 2009 Iran presidential election. Bahari documented his time at Evin in his memoir, titled Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival, which was published by Random House in 2011. The memoir is the basis of the film Rosewater, which was written and directed by former The Daily Show host Jon Stewart. The film's title references the nickname Bahari gave his interrogator/torturer at Evin, based on the man's cologne.

Three long time Middle-Eastern residents, Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal, and Sarah Shourd, who were on holiday in Iraqi Kurdistan and were detained by Iran, were held in Evin Prison since the beginning of August 2009. Shourd was kept in solitary confinement.[26] The Washington Post reported that they "were arrested in July [2009] by Iranian border guards while hiking in the mountainous Kurdish region between Iraq and Iran. Their families say they crossed the border accidentally, but a top Iranian prosecutor last month accused the three of spying." In December 2009, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the three would be put on trial, in a move that coincided with other points of contention between the two countries.[27] Sarah Shourd was freed 14 September 2010, on a US$500.000 bail. Two days earlier, the three Americans had been charged with espionage by Iranian prosecutors.

The prison also held members of religious minorities including members of the Bahá'í Faith — on 14 May 2008, members of an informal body that oversaw the needs of the Bahá'í community in Iran were arrested and taken to Evin prison.[28] They were held in section 209 of the prison which is run by the government's Ministry of Intelligence.[29] On 11 August 2010 it became known that the court sentence was 20 years imprisonment for each of the seven prisoners[30] which was later reduced to ten years.[31] After the sentence, they were transferred to Gohardasht Prison.[32]

According to Saberi, the two Baha'i women are confined in a small cell about four meters by five meters in size, with two little, metal-covered windows. They have no bed. "They must sleep on blankets", said Saberi. "They have no pillows, either. They roll up a blanket to use as a pillow. They use their chadors as a bed sheet."[33]

Studying in India, Asghari was arrested in 2008 at Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport and held in custody since. Vahid Asghari had sued Fars News (IRGC media) and IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) at the fourth branch of the Culture and Media Court due to the false accusation that was attributed to him when he was in the known 350 ward of Evin Prison in 2011.[34][35][36]

Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundullah, was executed in the prison in 2010.

From January to May 2010, student activist Majid Tavakoli was held in Evin, primarily in solitary confinement.[37] He began a hunger strike to protest the conditions of his imprisonment, and was transferred to Gohardasht Prison in August 2010.[37]

Human rights blogger and U.S. National Press Club honoree Kouhyar Goudarzi served a one-year prison term in Evin in 2010 for "spreading propaganda against the regime".[38] On 31 July 2011, he was rearrested, and though his current whereabouts are unconfirmed, he is believed to be held in solitary confinement in Evin.[39]

Iranian laser physicist, Omid Kokabee, who at the time of arrest was a student of University of Texas at Austin was imprisoned at Evin in February 2011 and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on charges of collaboration with an enemy.

Majid Jamali Fashi, convicted of assassinating Iranian scientist Masoud Alimohammadi and a suspected Mossad spy, was hanged on 15 May 2012 after being convicted on 28 August 2011.[40]

Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American pastor, was sentenced on 27 January 2013 to 8 years imprisonment on charges of evangelizing for his Christian faith.[41] The Obama administration secured his release in a prisoner swap in January 2016.[42]

Mohammad Heidari and Kourosh Ahmadi, accused of spying for CIA and Mossad, were executed in the prison in 19 May 2013 after being sentenced to death by Tehran's Revolutionary Court for various counts of espionage.[43]

Marzieh Rasouli, a journalist who writes about culture and the arts for several of Iran's reformist and independent publications, was arrested in 2012 and accused of collaborating with the BBC. In 2014 she was convicted of "spreading propaganda" and "disturbing the public order". Sentenced to two years in prison and 50 lashes, she was sent to Evin Prison on 8 July 2014.[44] PEN International has called for her "immediate and unconditional" release.[45]

Amir Hekmati, former US Marine and American citizen, was arrested on charges of espionage in August 2011, and sentenced to execution. Amir was released by Iran as part of the 16 January 2016 prisoner swap with the United States.[46][47]

On 5 October 2013, Hossein Rajabian Iranian filmmaker and Mehdi Rajabian, a musician, were arrested by the Iranian security forces. They were held for two months in Section 2A (solitary confinement) of the Evin prison. Finally on 22 December 2015 at Branch 28 court of the Tehran they were sentenced to six years in prison for "insulting the sacred" and "propaganda against the state" through artistic activity, as well as a 200 million Toman (about US$66.650) fine.[48][49][50][51]

Seyed Hamed Hooriaband worked at the Iranian Embassy in Paris, France. Having taken the side of the people in joining protests for the Green Movement and the opposition in Paris at the 2009 presidential elections, he was fired, targeted, and harassed and made an example of by the Islamic Regime so none of the other diplomatic government officials’ family members would dare to publicly oppose from within the system. After having his family threatened by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, he returned to Iran. In October 2011, security agents raided his parents’ home and arrested him without a charge. He was put in solitary confinement at the Evin Prison in the infamous section 240, reserved for political prisoners, where he endured psychological torture and then charged with espionage and embezzlement. He was then sentenced by Revolutionary Court judge Salavati without due process of the law and access to a lawyer, to two years in prison for espionage, and one year and 10 months for embezzlement. The court then acquitted him of embezzlement charges but even though the sentence was revoked he was unlawfully kept for another 13 months in prison and was fined in cash. He has recently been released on bail for good conduct.[52]

Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert is a prisoner here.[53]