What goes on behind bars in Iran?

The following document consists of, statements of those who who were recently freed from the IRI's different prisons. This information is being published to show the kind of torture they people have been through, and is to show the depth of the problem we are facing. It has minor formatting and is mainly just listed. Due to security reasons the identities have been kept private.

A witness states: some have been released by 50 thousand toman bails, and some others have paid, were as high as 50 million toman on bail. The file's have been submitted to the Enghelab court for further investigations. There are still many in prison, who's family and loved ones have not heard from and do not know if they are still alive or have been killed.

In continuation:

• 1. As expected not everyone was arrested during the rallies. Many were arrested as they were going about their daily business like, getting off of a taxi, leaving the metro station, or just taking a walk around town and were even away from the crowd. Some state their homes were attacked in the middle of the night, and they were taken in to custody. A 16 year old prisoner's family states, even though he was bailed less than a week ago, last night their home was attacked in the middle of the night and he was arrested and taken from his own bed.
• 2. Many different class of people are observed amongst the prisoners, from teenagers and regular people to university professors and the noblemen of the society, who were mainly arrested in groups. One states he left his home to get ice cram, and was arrested on his way back home while he was still holding his ice cream. Mahtab Nasir Poor is amongst the celebrities who were recently arrested.

Some foreign citizens were also spotted in Evin prison, such as an African American and a turkish prisoner, who did not even understand Farsi. One was arrested while driving his in labor wife to the hospital, and as of now does not know the condition of either his wife nor his child. A dentist was arrested in his own dental office. Also there has been news of a basij crowd member who was arrested because apparently he did not look like other basij members and was beaten severely, he states he even had possession of his active basij card at the time of his arrest. A witness has stated the number of arrests are so high that often older prisoners are used as Guards! Due to lack of space the prisoners are forced to make use of the space they have and there is very high chance of spread of disease in between them.

• 3. Even those who were arrested out side of the rallies were violently beaten with batons, bats, and electric batons. The word has it one of the plain clothes has shot a prisoner in his thigh form close range. Prisoners were tortured in many places such as specified prisons, basij stations, police station and ect... the worst tortures were noticed to be done at basij and police station of Vahdat Eslami street. More information on the kinds of torture used can be found below.
• 4. The ones who were brought in injured are denied medical attention, and their families are not even allowed to give them medicine or anything of that sort. One injured states he was hit in the face after requesting medical treatment for his broken nose, which was done during the riot with baton.
• 5. The investigation are done in long sessions (7-12 hours or even more), with no break in between. In these investigations they will try anything to get a confession, also they are known to have kept the email address and cell phones of the prisoners, and kept controlling their communications.
• 6. After being released, their belongings are not given back. Word has it, one was released from prison with only his underwear on his back and nothing els.
• 7. Apparently sexual harassment is one of their ways, it worries us that it is seen more towards women and political prisoners. specially since and it goes completely against the Iranian cloture and their beliefs. Of course there is no way of proofing that since there are not autopsies preformed on the corpses that come from a neutral coroner's office.
• 8. The prisoners, nor those who have ben released, are in a good mental condition. Some have not been able to get a decent night sleep, due to the traumatic scenes they have seen over the past couple of weeks, and have decided they are better off not even going to bed.

The kinds of tortures used on prisoners:

ones who have been arrested by lain clothes and basij, were severely beaten, and were transferred to detention facilities and basij stations, and at the end before being taken to Evin prison, transferred to investigation department of Shapoor ( Vahdat Eslami). They were tortured severely in each and every one of these facilities, and have heard complains from the police force about them being limited on beating the prisoners, due to the severity of the prior tortures they had gone through, but still they were not hesitant about it.

The interesting point is they were actually enjoying putting people through this, and all of the beating was accompanied by their laughter and mockery.

• Word has it, they broke the left side of someones scull, and to make it even they broke the right side as well.
• During a group beating of prisoners, they were told by someone, that captives should not be tortured, then he has pushed everyone aside, and started the beating himself, after he was tired, he has ordered them to resume their beatings.
• One states after requesting for his hand cuffs to be loosened a little bit, they have actually made it tighter to the point that it had pinched the skin, and he was taken from one place to another by his cuffs.
• Some prisoners state, they were forced to kneel in front of a wall for 4 days straight, and were only given two small portions to eat, and during the 4 days, they were beaten in the head if they had happened to fall sleep.
• One states the first shock he had gotten from taser, has thrown him almost 2 meters away, but now after being tortured, he has no reaction to the taser gun.
• The ones who were a little more buffed were more in target, with the excuse of demolishing public properties and hitting the security forces.
• Group beating of prisoners, hitting with baton, cable, bats, taser as well as kicking the prisoners in the face even the injured, has been seen a lot.
• A witness states, some injuries were due to hitting and kicking, and also hitting with bloody cables, chains and etc...
• wrist fractures were seen in most cases.