Iran: Israeli Attack on Evin Prison an Apparent War Crime

Human Rights Watch-Aug 14th 2025

Israeli forces unlawfully attacked Evin prison in Tehran on June 23, 2025, absent any evident military target, killing and injuring scores of civilians including prisoners, their family members, and prison staff.
The strikes, during prisoners’ visiting hours, significantly damaged multiple buildings, including in prison areas known to hold many activists and dissidents.
Violations of the laws of war by Israeli and Iranian forces during the 12 days of conflict between June 13 to 25 should be fully investigated and those responsible for war crimes held to account.

(Beirut) – Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s Evin prison complex in Tehran on June 23, 2025, were unlawfully indiscriminate and an apparent war crime, Human Rights Watch said today. The strikes hit several buildings across the complex and killed at least 80 people, according to official Iranian statements, including prisoners, their family members, and prison staff, in the absence of any evident military target.

Over 1,500 prisoners are believed to have been held at Evin prison at the time of the attack, including many activists and dissidents held by the Iranian government in violation of their rights. The strikes, during visiting hours, significantly damaged the visitation hall, central kitchen, medical clinic, and sections where prisoners were held, including political prisoners.

“Israel’s strikes on Evin prison on June 23 killed and injured scores of civilians without any evident military target in violation of the laws of war and is an apparent war crime,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The Israeli attack placed at grave risk the already precarious lives of Evin’s prisoners, many of them wrongfully detained dissidents and activists.”

Between June 24 and July 29, Human Rights Watch interviewed 22 people about the attack, including relatives of victims and prisoners, former Evin prisoners, and others with extensive knowledge of the prison. Human Rights Watch wrote to Iranian and Israeli authorities on July 2 and 7, respectively, seeking information but has not received responses.

Human Rights Watch also analyzed and verified videos and photographs of the Israeli strikes published by media outlets and on social media, as well as material shared directly with researchers, and satellite imagery from before and after the strikes. Human Rights Watch was unable to visit the site, as Iran does not permit access to independent human rights organizations.

The investigation into the June 23 attack on Evin prison is part of a broader Human Rights Watch inquiry into the June 13-25 hostilities between Israel and Iran, including Iranian ballistic missile attacks on populated areas in Israel.

Israeli forces carried out strikes on Evin prison, a 43-hectare compound in Tehran’s District 1, between 11:17 a.m. and 12:18 p.m. on June 23. No advance warning is known to have been given. Satellite imagery, videos, and witness accounts show strikes damaging buildings hundreds of meters apart.

The strikes destroyed the prison’s main southern entrance and another in the north. The visitors’ information building, adjacent to the main entrance, was completely destroyed. Family members of prisoners and former prisoners said that many families frequent the visitors’ building, including to deliver clothing and medicine. The strikes also hit the visitation hall, a judicial complex housing assistant prosecutors, and significantly damaged or destroyed several buildings in the prison’s central premises, where the medical clinic and several prison wards are located.

Two political prisoners in the prison’s central Ward 4, Abolfazl Ghadiani and Mehdi Mahmoudian, described in a publicly available account the “sounds of repeated explosions” at midday near their ward. They saw the medical clinic burning, and the food and hygiene warehouse destroyed. By 2:00 p.m., they said, prisoners had extricated 15 to 20 bodies from the rubble, including those of other prisoners, medical clinic personnel, warehouse workers, and guards and officials from Section 209, a detention facility run by the Intelligence Ministry where dissidents are routinely detained.

Dr. Saeedeh Makarem, who volunteered at the medical clinic, posted on Instagram that after the strikes, prisoners rescued her from the rubble. She subsequently underwent major surgery, including hand replantation. State media reported that a physician was also killed in the clinic.

The strikes damaged buildings and vehicles outside the northern parts of the prison complex, killing and injuring residents, including Mehrangiz Imenpour, a 61-year-old artist. Domestic media reported that Ali Asghar Pazouki, a 69-year-old businessman, was killed outside the compound.

Human Rights Watch found damage either to, or in the vicinity of, prison sections used to hold people accused of national security offenses, including activists and dissidents. These included Wards 4 and 8, Sections 209, 240, 241, 2A, and the women’s ward. The main quarantine section, where transgender prisoners were held, was also damaged. Iranian authorities have not reported on the condition or whereabouts of many prisoners from these sections, which amounts to enforced disappearances in violation of international human rights law.

Under international humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war, prisons are presumptively civilian objects. Human Rights Watch’s investigation found no evidence of any military targets at the Evin prison complex at the time of the Israeli strikes. None of the sources interviewed, including recently released prisoners, family members, and lawyers who have repeatedly been to the prison said that they were aware of any Iranian military personnel, arms, or material within the compound.

Statements by Israeli ministers immediately after the attack made no claims of military targets within the prison compound but framed the strikes as part of Israel’s attacks on Iran’s repressive institutions. Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote immediately after the attack that Israel struck Evin prison due to its function as an “agency of government repression.” Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s post on X indicated that Evin prison had been struck in retaliation for Iran’s attacks on civilians in Israel.

Several hours after the strikes, Israel’s military confirmed the attack, and a military spokesperson alleged, without evidence or details, that Iran carried out “intelligence operations against the state of Israel, including counter-espionage” in the prison. An Israeli military spokesperson repeated the same allegations that day in a media interview. The Israel Defense Forces’ statement reiterated previous government statements that Evin prison was a “symbol of oppression for the Iranian people.”

The laws of war applicable to the international armed conflict between Israel and Iran prohibit attacks that target civilians and civilian objects, that do not discriminate between civilians and combatants, or that are expected to cause harm to civilians or civilian objects disproportionate to any anticipated military advantage. Indiscriminate attacks include those not directed at a specific military target. Even if some individuals at Evin prison were Iranian military personnel, the large-scale attack would have been unlawfully disproportionate.

Serious laws of war violations committed by individuals with criminal intent – that is, deliberately or recklessly – are war crimes. Governments are obligated to investigate alleged war crimes by their forces, or on their territory, and appropriately prosecute those responsible. Both Israel and Iran have track records of impunity and unwillingness to investigate in line with international law, let alone prosecute possible war crimes by their forces. All governments have an obligation to cooperate with each other, to the extent possible, to facilitate the investigation and appropriate prosecution of alleged war crimes.

“The unlawful Israeli attack on Evin prison highlights the consequences of longstanding impunity for serious laws of war violations,” Page said. “To make matters worse, Israeli forces put at grave risk prisoners who were already victims of Iranian authorities’ brutal repression.”

The June 13-25 Conflict Between Israel and Iran

On June 13, Israel carried out a series of attacks on Iran that continued until a ceasefire went into effect on June 25. Israeli military attacks included strikes on populated areas; on oil, gas, and nuclear facilities; and on Evin prison. In response, the Iranian military launched a series of ballistic missile and drone attacks against Israel, hitting populated areas as well as a power station, an oil refinery, and a hospital.

On June 22, the United States became a party to the conflict by carrying out airstrikes on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities. Iran responded on June 23 by launching missiles at a US airbase in Qatar.

Iranian authorities have not published detailed data regarding people killed and injured during the conflict, including a breakdown of civilian and military casualties. On July 16, an Iranian government spokesperson stated that 1,062 people, including 140 children and women, were killed as a result of Israeli strikes, and 5,800 were injured. Iran’s health minister stated on July 9 that about 700 of those killed were civilians. Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA), a US-based group, reported that 1,190 people were killed, including at least 436 civilians.

Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry reported 30 civilians, including 4 children, were killed in Israel during the hostilities and 3,343 people were treated in hospitals for injuries from Iranian strikes.

Casualties in Evin Prison Attack

On July 9, a spokesperson for Iran’s Judiciary announced that 80 people had been killed as a result of the strikes on Evin Prison. According to official statements, casualties included judicial and prosecution officials, prison staff, prisoners and their family members, other visitors to the prison, and people living in neighboring residential areas. Informed sources told Human Rights Watch they believe the casualty figures are most likely higher.

The authorities have not released the names of all 80 people reported to have died. Iran’s Prisons Organization and state media have published the names and images of 41 prison staff who died, including 5 female social workers, a social worker’s 5-year-old son, and 13 young men performing mandatory national service.

Those performing mandatory national service in prisons fall under the auspices of the Prisons’ Organization and the national police force, and typically guard the premises, transfer prisoners, and carry out administrative duties and other basic tasks. They are neither combatants under the laws of war nor civilians directly participating in hostilities and so cannot be targeted.

Officials have confirmed the deaths of five prisoners but have not released their names. This is particularly alarming and creates hardship for prisoners’ families, especially because the various Iranian intelligence agencies using Evin Prison have longstanding records of enforced disappearance of dissidents and activists.

Reza Khandan, a wrongfully detained human rights defender, stated in his account of the attack that among prisoners killed were those who worked in the prison compound or its administrative sections.

In addition to the list of prison staff published by state media and institutions, Human Rights Watch, drawing from publicly available information, as well as accounts from informed sources, identified several civilians killed during the attack. They are Hasti (Hajar) Mohammadi, who went to the prison to work for the release of debt prisoners; Leila Jafarzadeh, who was at the prison to post bail for her jailed husband; Ali Asghar Pazouki, a businessman who was near the northern judicial complex; and Mehrangiz Imenpour, an artist and neighborhood resident.

The authorities have not released any figures on the number of people injured in the attack. The relative of someone killed told Human Rights Watch that during their search for their loved one, they were given a list of names of 20 to 25 people injured from one hospital alone.