Iran Releases Video Said To Show Fire at Notorious Evin Prison

Iran released video surveillance footage that is says came from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on the night that a fire broke out in the facility, killing at least eight inmates. The official reason given for the outbreak of the fire on October 15 is that it was set during a riot and escape attempt by prisoners convicted of financial crimes. While the video was meant to bolster this claim, it does not show any kind of riot or unrest. It does show panicked prisoners trying to escape the smoke and flames. Evin is the prison that houses political prisoners and anti-government activists.  Iran Independent, a Persian-language news television channel headquartered in London and  known for its reporting on human rights violations, political developments, LGBTQ+ rights and women’s rights in Iran, reported late last week citing eyewitnesses that the mysterious blaze in Evin prison was a government scheme to fake a jail break in order to kill prisoners as well as to suppress protests in support of the ongoing demonstrations in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, who died while in the custody of the Islamic Republic’s morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly, which are in their sixth week. At least 233 protesters have been killed and thousands arrested since the start of the protests. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Iran’s state media reported that hackers broke into the network of a subsidiary of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and had free access to its emails. The attack, which the Iranian hacking group Black Reward claimed responsibility for in a tweeted statement, was an act of support for the protests and leaked internal emails and contracts, as well as construction plans related to Iran’s Russian-backed Bushehr nuclear power plant to the group’s Telegram channel. Iran alleged that the hackers were working for a foreign country and that they published information online, according to the reports. Iran has previously accused the United States and Israel of such hacking attacks, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accused both the US and Israel of fomenting the protests.