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Iran moves female dissidents to 'hellhole' detention centre after Israeli airstrike on notorious prison
Iran has moved its female prisoners into a 'hellhole' detention centre following an Israeli airstrike on the country's infamous Evin jail.
Israel struck Tehran's most notorious jail for political prisoners on Monday, the day before a ceasefire deal was agreed on, bringing an end to a 12-day war.
Inmates have now been moved to Qarchak prison, The Telegraph reports, which is a former livestock facility-turned detention camp around 40 miles south of Tehran.
Activist groups have frequently raised concerns over Qarchak, which is known for carrying out torture and other human rights violations.
There is also no proper sewage system or access to clean water, it is reported.
Many women arrested during the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests were locked up in Qarchak, and several are still being held there.
One woman described being moved from Evin to Qarchak following the Israeli strike in an audio recording.
'The American and Israeli bombing didn't kill us, but the Islamic Republic has brought us to a place where it's practically killing us,' the woman said.
'They've brought us to a place where humans don't live. It's a gradual death.'
The woman also called the detention centre a 'real hellhole' and described being crammed into a small quarantine ward with other inmates where 'the stench of filth' is everywhere and the food inedible.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 women are held at Qarchak throughout most of the year. Each hall was designed for fewer than 100 people, but they typically home over 150.
The prison is also infested with cockroaches, rats, water bugs and lizards, and medical care is very limited.
Despite the lack of adequate healthcare, prisoners are often given tranquilisers.
Most inmates at Qarchak are women from marginalised and vulnerable backgrounds, and also holds children up to the age of four with their mothers.
Male inmates are understood to have been taken from Evin to Fashafoyeh prison outside the capital following the Israeli strike.
The transfer of the inmates to the infamous prison comes as Iranian authorities have launched a wave of arrests following the fragile ceasefire, detaining hundreds on espionage charges, as the weakened government becomes increasingly paranoid.
The conditions in Evin prison were also dreadful.
The detention centre was known for holding political prisoners of the Islamic Republic, including foreign nationals, such as British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratclife, who was freed in 2022.
Women locked up in Evin prison were 'interrogated for 10 to 12 hours every day' and threatened with beatings and even executions, multiple sources once told the BBC.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe said about her time at Evin: 'I spent nine months in solitary confinement with very little access to anything. Being claustrophobic, solitary was a horrific experience.'
