Iranian Sunni prisoners of conscience were attacked and beaten by Raja’i Shahr Prison guards in Karaj after protesting prison conditions and denial of medical treatment. Many were injured but are still in solitary confinement.
Reports indicate that the prison guards beat the prisoners on August 27, 2019, using electric shock and truncheons.
The prisoners had previously staged hunger strike in July to protest the authorities’ abuse of the prisoners and ignoring their problems such as lack of space, not being allowed to telephone their families and loved ones, deprivation of light and clean air, and being locked up inside their cells without being allowed to go outside for fresh air.
Hall 36 of Ward 10 of Raja’i Shahr Prison, which provides for 39 Sunni political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, has only two small rooms, only one toilet and one bathroom.
There is only one telephone booth for the 39 prisoners whose families are living in other cities. The telephone line is connected only for two hours.
There is no store for the prisoners to purchase their essential needs. Some prisoners have remained with their legal status in limbo for more than four years.
These 39 inmates are kept in hot summer temperatures with unsafe and unsanitary conditions. They suffer both from lack of adequate space to stretch and lie down, enduring increased psychological pressures.
Raja’i Shahr Prison is one of the most notorious jails in Iran.
The facility mostly houses murderers, rapists, and drug smugglers. However, the Iran Prisons Organisation has transferred many political prisoners and prisoners of conscience to this detention centre, in order to subject them to more pressures.
The prison is notorious for conducting mass execution, depriving prisoners of medical care, implementing torture, beating prisoners, and denying prisoners their basic rights.
