IRAN YESTERDAY responded to growing criticism over political detainees by freeing 140 inmates incarcerated in its most notorious jail following the recent post-election upheavals.
The prisoners were released from Tehran’s Evin prison after MPs inspected the facility, where hundreds of opposition politicians, activists and protesters have been held following protests over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bitterly disputed re-election.
The move followed the closure of another detention centre where human rights groups say torture led to several deaths. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the closure of Kahrizak prison on Tehran’s southern outskirts because it “lacked the standards” to maintain detainees’ rights, officials said.
The release of the Evin prisoners came a day after the judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, urged officials to free inmates not suspected of serious offences. Some 150 political prisoners remain inside, according to official figures, including prominent supporters of the reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims last month’s presidential election was stolen from him.
Many prisoners are said to be under severe pressure to sign confessions admitting involvement in a foreign-backed plot to topple the regime. This week, the Guardian reported how Evin inmates recently released claimed they had been beaten, abused and held in overcrowded conditions. Ramin Ghahremani is said to have died from a blood clot after being suspended upside down from the jail ceiling, where he was taken after surrendering himself to the police.
Concern over the detainees triggered a fresh crisis after the death last week of Mohsen Rouholamini – the son of a prominent scientist and regime insider – reportedly from meningitis. Rouholamini’s family says he developed an infection after injuries sustained under torture were untreated.
Another prisoner, Mohammad Kamrani (18) died in hospital of meningitis after being taken from Evin. However, it has emerged that both had been previously been held in Kahrizak, where they were among detainees crammed into an underground makeshift cell after arrest during a demonstration on July 9th.
On Monday, Mr Mousavi denounced the crackdown on opposition supporters as a “disaster”.
In a speech to a group of teachers, he said: “People will not forgive these acts. How is it possible that someone goes into a prison, then his body comes out?”
He demanded a judiciary investigation into Rouhalamini's death: "They will find out what happened. This is not what we expect from the Islamic Republic," he said. – ( Guardianservice)