Under the cloak of darkness on June 23, 2025, the Iranian regime carried out a violent and sudden purge of Evin Prison, forcibly relocating hundreds of inmates, most of them political prisoners, to notoriously brutal detention centers. This operation, disguised as a necessary security measure following a reported attack on the prison, is a chilling signal of the regime’s intent to intensify its war on dissent. This is not a relocation for safety; it is a calculated step toward isolating and eliminating political opponents, echoing the darkest chapters of the regime’s history.
The transfer was executed with deliberate cruelty. “On the night of Monday, June 23, 2025, authorities in Evin prison violently and hastily transferred all inmates from wards 7, 4, and 8—most of whom are political prisoners—using 20 buses,” according to a statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Armed guards under the command of Evin’s notorious head, Hedayat Farzadi, gave prisoners no time to gather their belongings. Shackled and handcuffed, they were herded onto buses with only minimal personal items, their vital medications left behind.
The prisoners were not moved to safety but cast into deeper circles of hell. Male inmates were sent to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafouyeh), while female prisoners were dispatched to the infamous Qarchak Prison. The conditions awaiting them reveal the punitive nature of the transfer. At Fashafouyeh, “40 prisoners have been crammed into each room [designed for 20], forced to sleep on the floor without beds,” the NCRI warns. Some were even placed in the prison’s prayer room. The entire hall, packed with sick and vulnerable inmates, has access to only one bathroom, creating an unlivable and unsanitary environment. Female prisoners in Qarchak face similarly deplorable conditions and have been denied any contact with their worried families.
A pattern of repression: isolating and “disappearing” opponents
This mass transfer is not an isolated incident but part of a clear and escalating strategy of repression. It follows a pattern of targeting and “disappearing” key political prisoners. Just days earlier, on June 18, elite university student and political prisoner Ali Younesi was severely beaten by guards in Evin and dragged to an unknown location. This tactic of abducting political prisoners under the guise of security operations is designed to break their spirits, sever their connection to the outside world, and make them vulnerable to further abuse, torture, or even execution far from public view.
The regime is cynically exploiting the “fog of war” created by its military conflict with Israel to wage a brutal internal war against its own people. Its true intentions were laid bare on June 16 at Kermanshah’s Dizel-Abad prison. When a nearby airstrike shattered prison windows, terrified inmates protested and pleaded to be moved to safety. The regime’s response was not protection, but live ammunition. At least 10 prisoners were killed in a cold-blooded massacre.
This playbook is terrifyingly familiar. It is identical to the strategy used in the spring of 1988, when the regime transferred PMOI supporters, claiming it was for their safety during wartime. Months later, those same prisoners were systematically executed in the 1988 massacre. The regime is once again using war as a shield to isolate political prisoners, setting the stage for another crime against humanity.
An urgent call to prevent another crime against humanity
The international community cannot remain a silent bystander as the Iranian regime prepares its next atrocity. The warning signs are clear and unambiguous. The violent relocation from Evin is a prelude to a potential massacre. The time for mere condemnation is over. As the Iranian Resistance has demanded, immediate and robust international action is required to save lives: “The Iranian Resistance… renews its call for an international fact-finding mission to visit Iran’s prisons and speak directly with inmates.” The world must heed this call and intervene before it is too late.