'Slow Death': Israel's strike on Iran's Evan prison, sparking fear of dissidents

Iranian dissident Sayeh Seydal barely escaped death when Israeli missiles hit Evan prison in Tehran. She had just walked out of the prison clinic before being destroyed in the explosion.

Iranian judicial spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on June 23 that at least 71 people were attacked on Iran's most notorious political dissident prisons on June 23, including employees, soldiers, visiting families and people nearby.

In the ensuing chaos, authorities moved Sedar and others to prisons outside Tehran – a crowded facility known for their harsh conditions.

A few days ago, when she was able to call her family, Sedal begged for help.

According to Sedal's will, she said: “It was actually a slow death.”

“The bombings in the United States and Israel did not kill us. Then the Islamic Republic brought us to a place that would almost kill us,” she said.

Militants fear Israeli attacks will lead to repression

Iran's pro-democracy and rights activists fear they will pay for Israel's 12-day air movement, aiming to undermine the country's nuclear program. Now, many say the state has been violated for its security, which has exacerbated the crackdown on its opponents.

Israel's strike against Evin – The goal of targeting “suppressive authorities” is to panic among the families of political prisoners who are scrambled to determine the fate of their loved ones. A week later, the families of people who were in solitary confinement or interrogation still did not hear from them.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, an experienced activist who has been imprisoned in Evin several times, said Iranian society “to achieve democracy, powerful tools are needed to strengthen civil society and women’s movement.”

“Unfortunately, the war has weakened these tools,” she said in a video message from the Associated Press in Tehran. She said the political space was shrinking and security forces increased their presence on the streets of the capital.

Fear of imminent execution

Now, many are concerned about potential waves of executions targeting activists and political prisoners. They saw a terrible precedent: After the war between Iran and Iraq ended in 1988, authorities executed at least 5,000 political prisoners after a criminal trial, and then buried them in mass graves that had never been visited.

During the Israeli campaign, Iran has executed six prisoners who were sentenced to death before the war.

The Washington-based human rights activist (HRA) has recorded nearly 1,300 arrests, most of whom are suspected of espionage, including 300 sharing content on social media in just 12 days.

The Iranian parliament is quickly tracking a bill that allows for greater use of the death penalty in cooperation with foreign rivals. The Attorney General calls for expedited litigation against those who “destroy peace” or “cooperate” with Israel.

Prisoners scattered after strike

The HRA said Evan Prison is located in an upscale community on the northern edge of Tehran, with an estimated 120 men and women in its general wards, as well as hundreds of interrogations or solitary confinement considered by its secret security department.

Prisoners include protesters, lawyers and activists who violate Iran's authoritarian rule, corruption and religious laws, including Islamic clothing for women. Since 2009, authorities have defeated national protests, defeating hundreds of people who have died and been jailed for thousands.

The strike hit Evin on the visit, causing shock and panic.

Seydal, an international law scholar who has joined the protest movement over the past two decades, has been in and out of prison since 2023, telling her family about her nearly dead in a prison clinic. The explosion knocked her to the ground, and a relative who spoke to Sedal said that the condition for anonymity was anonymous because of fear of revenge.

Visiting the hall, the prosecutor's office and several prisoner wards were also seriously damaged, according to prisoner rights groups and relatives. A missile hit the prison entrance, where prisoners often sit and wait to be taken to a hospital or court.

“Attacking the prison, when prisoners stand behind closed doors and they can't do anything to save themselves, it will never be a legitimate target,” Mohammadi said. Mohammadi was just released in December when her latest sentence was temporarily suspended due to medical reasons.

Mohammadi and the prisoners' families said that at night, buses began to transfer prisoners to other facilities. According to Mohammadi, at least 65 women were taken to Qarchak prison. The man was taken to Tehran Cathedral, housing offenders and high-security prisoners. Both are located in the southern part of Tehran.

Mohammadi told the Associated Press that her immediate fear was the lack of medical facilities and poor sanitation. Among women, there are several diseases that need treatment, including 73-year-old civil rights activist Raheleh Rahemi, who has a brain tumor.

Sedar called Qarchak “hell” on the phone. She said the women were packaged together in isolation, without sanitation, limited food or drinking water.

“It's smelly. It's just pure filth,” she said.

Seydal, 47, was sentenced for the first time in 2023. Her leave was cancelled in early 2025, she was attacked by security and faced new charges after refusing to wear a Chador in the prosecutor’s office.

A brother disappeared

Reza Younesi's father and younger brother Ali were both imprisoned by Evin for many years. Now, the family is scared because Ali has disappeared.

Ali, a 25-year-old graduate of a prestigious technical university, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for “a criminal who committed crimes against national security.” The judgment was widely criticized by the rights group, but then brought a new case against him on unknown charges.

According to his brother, Ali was dragged out of the ward and taken to an unknown place just days after Evan's strike.

After the strike, their father Mir-Yousef Younesi saw no signs of Ali as he and other prisoners were transferred to the Greater Tehran prison. The father managed to call his family in panic.

Missing in Evin is not uncommon. Guards sometimes evacuate political prisoners from the ward for interrogation. In some cases, they are sentenced and executed in a secret trial.

Reza Younesi said the family lawyer could not find any information about his brother or the new allegations.

“We're all worried,” he said in Sweden, an associate professor at Uppsala University. “Without the inmate’s information, this means in almost all cases the person is being questioned and tortured.”

“All hope is gone”

Mehraveh Khandan grew up in a family of political activists. Her childhood and teenager spent most of her time visiting her mother, rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was repeatedly imprisoned.

Her father, Reza Khandan, was thrown into Evin in December for distributing buttons against women’s mandatory headscarf.

Now living in Amsterdam, the 25-year-old is frantically trying to find information about her father after a strike. The internet was cut off and her mother evacuated from Tehran. “I'm just thinking about who might die there,” she said. She said her father could do 24 hours.

Later on a home phone call, her father told him how he was sleeping on the floor in the crowded cell of the big Tehranian insect.

At first, she thought the Evin strike might prompt the government to release prisoners. But after seeing reports of mass detention and executions, “all of these hopes disappeared.”

The war, she said, “just destroys everything that activists start to build.”