TEHRAN: An air strike on Iran's Evin Prison containing political Prisoners on Monday represents a grave violation of international humanitarian law, the UN human rights office said. "Evin Prison is not a military objective, and targeting it constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law," UN human rights spokesperson Thameen Al Kheetan told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, without naming Israel. He said that his office has received reports of fires inside the facility and an unspecified number of injuries.
Iran's prison authority has transferred prisoners out of Evin prison after it was hit by Israeli strikes, the judiciary said on Tuesday. The prison authority "transferred the inmates who were serving their sentences in this prison (Evin) to other facilities within Tehran province... to safeguard the rights of the prisoners and to provide space for emergency response teams," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said.
Iranian media reported that the process of transferring the prisoners had been completed, but did not specify how many inmates were moved. Media also reported that authorities on Tuesday defused two unexploded missiles that landed near the prison during an Israeli strike the day before. "Two unexploded missiles that had been fired yesterday and landed in the vicinity of Evin prison were defused and safely transferred to a secure location," Tasnim news agency reported, citing a police spokesman.
Earlier, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said multiple people were killed and wounded in the strike on the prison on Monday, state TV reported. "Due to this destruction, a number of our fellow citizens, including administrative and judicial staff, visiting civilians, family members of inmates and the inmates themselves, were injured, and we have had martyrs in this incident," he said. The strike destroyed part of the administrative building at Evin, a large, heavily fortified complex in the north of Tehran, which rights groups say holds political prisoners and foreign nationals. — Agencies
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