Overview

• Human Rights Watch’s August 14 report used satellite imagery, videos and witness testimony to conclude that the June 23 strike destroyed Evin’s visitation halls, prison wards, medical clinic and administrative offices without any evident military target.
• Iranian state accounts put the death toll from the airstrike at between 71 and 80 people, including inmates, visiting relatives and prison staff, with many more injured when the attack struck during visiting hours.
• Survivors and transferred inmates have reported beatings with batons, use of electric shock weapons and shackling during forced relocations to Qarchak and Fashafouyeh, prisons known for overcrowding and harsh conditions.
• Rights groups report that some detainees vanished after transfers, including Swedish-Iranian physician Ahmadreza Djalali, whom HRW warns faces possible execution.
• Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and UN human rights offices are calling for impartial investigations into both the airstrike and subsequent prisoner abuses, but Iranian authorities have yet to permit any independent inquiry.