Torture at Evin Prison: Journalist’s Own Experiences and His Interviews with 19 Political Prisoners

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran – Torture at Evin Prison: Journalist’s Own Experiences and His Interviews with 19 Political Prisoners

In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, journalist Saeed Pourheydar, who was arrested twice after the 2009 election and eventually sentenced to five years in prison, described his prison abuse, charges, his detention conditions inside Evin Prison, and the torture of other political prisoners.

... “Many of my prisoner friends inside Evin’s Ward 350, who had prior experience in solitary cells inside Wards 209, 240, and IRGC’s Ward 2-A, had been exposed to some type of psychological, mental, or physical torture. During my time in Ward 350, I was able to talk to 19 friends who had been tortured. Most of the torture took place inside the ward affiliated with the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), and depending on what the security forces decided for the prisoner, the type and intensity of the torture differed. For example, if they were set on extracting confessions out of someone, they would force him to confess and accept his charges in whatever way they could. During the talks I had with my friends, they gave me a complete description of what they went through in solitary cells. The stories I heard about the horrible psychological and physical torture provided me with new insight about how brutally the regime treats its political prisoners,” he added.

“Beatings, urinating on the prisoner’s head and face, hanging the prisoner by his feet, flogging, using electric shockers, hitting sensitive spots on one’s body, and one case of horrible rape using glue, were parts of the physical torture my friends told me about. Fake executions, insults and degradation, arrests of family members, threats of arresting and raping the prisoner’s wife or daughter, threatening the prisoner with the death sentence, forcing the prisoner to take psychedelics, etc., were only a small part of the psychological and mental tortures used inside the Islamic Republic prisons that these 19 prisoners experienced. Though the number of prisoners who were tortured was far more than this number, when I was inside Ward 250, I was only able to talk to 19 individuals, some of whom were unfortunately executed later and some others who continue to serve their time there.” ... Read the complete article....