Saturday, November 07, 2009

New changes and restrictions imposed by the Evin security office have turned Evin into an intelligence prison.

HRA- The prisoners’ rights unit of HRA reports that the chief warden in Evin prison is currently under investigation by Iran’s Prison Authority and the Auditor General for massive fraud, mismanagement and immoral behavior; this has made the security office of the prison the sole decision maker and in charge of running the prison.

Reports from several wards suggest that, over the last few months, the security office has been the sole decision maker and has implemented all its decisions, including harsh restrictions on political prisoners.

The security office has canceled all face to face prison visits and has moved some political prisoners to secluded wards inside the prison (wards 8 and 350, which do not have collective rooms). Also, in the past few months several prisoners who were doing cultural activities inside prison have been exiled to ward 8. The security office has also taken away their rights to use prison’s cultural facilities and has stopped them from continuing their cultural and artistic activities.

The political prisoners (also referred to as security prisoners) who have been transferred to the secluded wards inside prison are subjected to harsher restrictions; for example, they are banned from celebrations and public events. Prison officials have been explicitly instructed to stop the political prisoners from taking part in such events.

In March 2009, a group of political and common prisoners started to publish a cultural weekly named “Voice of Evin”. The security office, despite its efforts, has been unable to stop the publication because the head of the cultural office of the prison has opposed this action. The security office continues its harassment campaign against the weekly publication by censoring columns that contain criticism. Prison officers also arbitrarily remove pages they dislike.

The security office has been accused of stealing items donated to the prison by some of the prisoners. One such seized item is a laptop donated to the cultural facility by a prisoner.

Additionally, personal items that were brought in for the prisoners by their families are routinely seized by security officials. These items never reach the prisoners. Several witnesses have seen the employees of the security office taking the items to their homes.

Over the last few months, the security office has received multiple reports of misconduct involving the warden. Reliable sources say the warden, Sedaghat, along with other prison officials, has been involved in abusing female inmates in return for prison leave or their transfer to the ward reserved for prisoners convicted of fraud charges. Sedaghat is also accused of drug trafficking inside the prison. According to official statistics, about 500 grams of crack-cocaine are distributed inside Evin everyday. Evin has the capacity to hold between 3800 and 5000 inmates.