Outline of Events that took place on 17 April and the days following in Evin Prison (based on prisoners’ testimonies)
• 17 April attacks
o At 9:30 am on 17 April, now dubbed by prisoners as ‘Black Thursday’, a number of plain-clothed – possibly security and intelligence – agents as well as prison guards and officials entered Men’s Ward 350 for search and inspection.
o Unlike previous inspections, the agents who were present on 17 April had cameras with them.
o Some of the prisoners inhabiting Rooms 1 and 3 of Ward 350, having had the experience of certain belongings and even food items going missing during previous searches, demanded to be present during inspection of their belongings. They did not physically resist or oppose the inspection; they simply insisted that they wanted to be present in their rooms during the search.
o The personal effects of these prisoners, including blankets, plates, spoons, food, books, and notebooks were all thrown into a pile in the middle of the room. Prisoners who had stayed behind in the rooms voiced their verbal objections and began singing protest songs and shouting “Down with the dictator.”
o The prisoners were then reportedly ordered to strip fully, which apparently they refused and verbally objected to.
o Subsequently, the guards sent a large number of the prisoners from other rooms into the yard. Then several of the plain-clothed agents and around 60 members of the Prison Special Guard with batons and anti-riot gear attacked the prisoners who remained in the ward and beat them. Between 20 and 25 of these agents had masks on their faces.
o The prisoners who had gone outdoors who noticed the attack taking place in the ward, returned to verbally object to the beatings and were also beaten, and as a result some were also injured.
o The guards then lined up in the hallway of the ward, and beat the prisoners passing through, hitting them with batons and kicking and punching them. They then handcuffed and blindfolded some of the prisoners and took them into minibuses. The floors of these minibuses and the prison yard were reported to be stained with the blood of these prisoners.
• Prisoners sent to solitary confinement
o More than 30 prisoners were sent to solitary confinement cells on 17 April after the attacks. (see List 2 below)
o In the solitary confinement cells, the prisoners were ill treated including being stripped, being handcuffed and dragged on the floor, being punched and kicked, being sworn at and degraded, being deprived of blankets and underwear, and being blindfolded. All of the prisoners sent to solitary confinement had their hair and moustaches shaved off by prison guards.
o 10 of the prisoners who had been sent to solitary confinement cells and were not as badly injured as others were returned to Ward 350 on Saturday 19 April in the morning. Seven more were returned to Ward 350 between Monday 21 April and Tuesday 22 April. Two more were returned to Ward 350 on 23 April in the evening.
o At least 11 prisoners still remained in solitary confinement as of Thursday 24 April. All those who remain in solitary confinement are reportedly on hunger strike.
• Medical care for prisoners injured on 17 April
o The prisoners who were sent to solitary confinement cells were not provided with immediate medical care in the prison clinic. Prison staff provided them with wound dressings in the solitary confinement cells. Only one prisoner who was sent to solitary confinement (Mohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand) reported being taken outside of the solitary confinement cell for medical treatment. During a family visit on 21 April, he reported that after spending 3 days in a solitary confinement cell, he was taken to receive treatment on 20 April.
o Reports indicate that up to five prisoners were initially sent to an outside hospital but were promptly returned to the prison.
o Prisoners who visited with their families on 21 April reported that 2 of the injured prisoners (Esmaeil Barzegari and Omid Behroozi) were initially put in an ambulance going to Taleghani Hospital (outside of Evin prison) on 17 April but were returned to the prison clinic that same day. Mr. Barzegari was chained to his bed in Evin prison’s clinic for one or two days. Mr. Behroozi was also chained (handcuffed and shackled) to his bed in Evin prison’s clinic. In protest against this ill-treatment, he went on hunger strike until he was sent back to Ward 350 on 19 April.
o Akbar Amini Armaki was one of the prisoners sent to a hospital outside of the prison on 19 April and was promptly returned to the prison as a result of the refusal of the Prison Clinic’s director to allow his hospitalisation.
o A number of prisoners told their families that prison authorities had not prepared X-rays or other medical documents for the injured prisoners in order not to leave any evidence of injuries.
• The days following the 17 April attacks
o On Sunday 20 April, five prisoners were allowed to call their families. These prisoners are Abdolfattah Soltani and Davar Hosseini Vojdan (both had been sent to solitary confinement on April 17 and then returned to Ward 350 on April 19), and Emad Behavar, Hassan Assadi Zeidabadi, and Amin Chalaki (all three had remained in Ward 350 after the April 17 attack).
o On Monday 21 April, families were allowed to visit some prisoners from Ward 350. A number of prisoners who appeared in the Visitation Hall of the prison to meet their family members used walking sticks and orthopaedic belts. Their heads had been shaved and they were helping each other to walk. Bruises were visible. According to the prisoners who appeared in the Visitation Hall, they had been subjected to less violence than the others who still remained in solitary confinement.
o Other prisoners who had not been injured or not been sent to solitary cells also shaved their heads in solidarity with the victims.
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