Within the sprawling Evin Prison complex in Tehran is a ward that those in the know refer to as the “Spies Hall”. Here, prisoners charged by the Islamic Republic of Iran with spying and collaboration with foreign governments are held, sometimes for decades on end.
Some of them, like Siamak Namazi and Morad Tahbaz, are dual nationals whose cases have made headlines internationally. But the vast majority of their fellow inmates’ names are unfamiliar to the wider world.
Most of them were convicted in behind-closed-doors trials, without due legal process being followed. In recent years some, like Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, have been executed behind bars. Many have also spent illegally long stretches of time in solitary confinement, without access to a lawyer, or even contact with their families. Even after they are transferred to the common wards, the restrictions continue.
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Evin Prison’s Ward 7, Hall 12: Near-Total Isolation
Ward 7 of Evin Prison is a four-storey building comprising seven “halls” housing prisoners. Upon entering, visitors immediately come face-to-face with the offices of the prison guard commander.
The doorways to Halls 3 and 4 are on each side of the warden’s office. Halls 5 and 6 are located one floor above, next to the library and the barber shop, and the next floor up is home to the prayer hall.
Below ground are Halls 1 and 2 and, more importantly, Hall 12. Before 2020 this final zone was used for holding all prisoners charged with espionage and collaboration with foreign states. Nominally, these prisoners shared the space with others who were charged with financial, political and other crimes, but in reality, they lived in a different world.
In 2019, Hall 12 of Ward 7 held around 45 prisoners, give or take a few, with access to just three telephones that each convict could use two times a day, for five minutes at a time. Each inmate was given a special telephone card that could be used to make a call to one of seven numbers that had been pre-approved by prison officials.
Inmates of Hall 12 could walk in the yard once a day for an hour. But they were not always allowed to do so. During this hour, other inmates were not allowed to use the yard so that they would not get a chance to talk with the inmates of Hall 12. Hall 12 prisoners could also use the library just once a week, and then only for an hour. Again, this was done to prevent contact with other prisoners.
Elsewhere in Ward 7 was a large theatre in which inmates would be treated once a month to a movie then being shown at cinemas outside. But the inmates of Hall 12 were denied this privilege to avoid the possibility of their mixing with others.
Prisoners convicted on financial crimes were permitted family visitation once a month – or twice a month in special cases. The other inmates of Hall 12 were allowed just one visit every quarter, presumably in a bid to make their stay in Evin all the more excruciating.
Ali is a current inmate on Ward 4 of Evin Prison, who is serving a sentence of 10 years for supposed espionage. He was previously held on Ward 7’s Hall 12 between 2018 and 2020. “It looked like a hall with cells,” he told IranWire, “but in reality, it was a tomb. “Evidently they wanted us to be forgotten. We were not allowed to use the bare minimum of facilities and we were allowed to go to the yard for fresh air on very few occasions.
“The severe restrictions on phone use sometimes led to tensions among the prisoners. They treated us as though we had an infectious disease and could only touch each other.”
Ali believes they were treated this way because the authorities were afraid that people would learn about the cases against them. “They were afraid others would learn how we were arrested, what they did to us in solitary confinement and during interrogation, how our trials were held, and how they had sentenced most of us to long prison terms without even so much as a shred of legally valid evidence.”
Evin Prison’s Ward 4, Hall 1: Imprisonment with Discrimination
In early 2020, all the former inmates of Hall 12 of Ward 7 were transferred to Hall 1 of Ward 4. Before then, most of those held in Hall 1 were simply prisoners who had refused or been unable to pay back dowries to their divorced wives.
Hall 1 is a dirty space in the corner of Ward 4 but widely considered “paradise” among other Evin inmates because it also houses those convicted of enormous financial crimes. Earlier, in our exposé on sex workers in Tehran jails, IranWire lifted the lid on the astonishing privileges these rich and well-connected prisoners on Ward 4 enjoy. The conditions of the others there, however, could not be more different.
Although they now enjoy slightly better telephone access and more breaks to walk in the yard, most of the other restrictions on these inmates still stand. Ali, who was among those to be transferred across, told IranWire: “The changes to phone calls and walking were are big deal for us. We no longer quarrel over who gets to use the phone.
“But a greater harm has befallen us: the sense that we are being increasingly discriminated against. Here, we see with own eyes how those charged with the big financial crimes live. The state-run radio and TV, and the press, loudly tell the people how these corrupt criminals have been dealt with. But they enjoy weekly visits from family members, live lavishly in prison and even have their own phones and servants and orderlies.
“In contrast, we have to get permission from 10 people to, for instance, leave our cells or borrow a book from the library. And we might not even get that permission. The feeling of unfairness is suffocating. A financial criminal who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison quietly gets a leave of absence every month, but most of us are never given furlough. I’ve served close to seven of my 10-year sentence but I’ve not even had one day of furlough.”
Coronavirus Stalks the New “Spies’ Hall”
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, a new, active threat to prisoners’ health has compounded the worries of both those behind bars and their families and loved ones. For months now, two rooms in Ward 4 have been set aside as quarantine bays for new arrivals to the prison. Both are located in Hall 1, where Ali and other inmates accused of espionage are held.
Ali told IranWire that he and others have raised this issue with prison officials many times, but to no avail. “It seems they actively want to make us sick so that they can get rid of us. They throw all the new prisoners into our hall; we don’t know whether they have been following safety guidelines outside prison or not.
“Nobody listens to us, however much we cry out. Since early 2021 seven of us have come down with Covid and two of them ended up in a grave condition. We don’t know what to do. Nobody can hear us from this dungeon.”
The Inmates of Evin Prison’s Ward 4, Hall 1
For posterity if nothing else, the below is an incomplete list of 33 prisoners who are currently serving time in Hall 1 of Ward 4.
1. Anousheh Ashouri: a dual-national businessman, sentenced to 12 years
2. Kamal Amir-Beyk: a former Iranian cultural attaché in Venezuela, sentenced to 10 years
3. Mohammad Heydari Kahkesh: a bodybuilder sentenced to seven years and six months
4. Kamran Ghaderi: an Iranian-Austrian businessman sentenced to 10 years
5. Hossein Hamidi-Nia: a former employee of Iran’s Foreign ministry
6. Mehran Asghari: a former government employee, sentenced to 10 years
7. Mohammad Reza Asadollah: sentence to 10 years
8. Esmail Rouki: sentenced to 10 years
9. Abdol-Sattar Sheikh: a PhD arts student sentenced to 10 years
10. Mohammad Hossein Rostami: a former administrator of the political website Ammar, sentenced to 10 years
11. Mohammad Ali Babapour: a university professor sentenced to 10 years
12. Ali Nafariyeh: a software developer sentenced to 10 years
13. Shahram Shir-Khani: a lawyer sentenced to 10 years
14. Ali Kashefi: a university professor sentenced to 10 years
15. Mohammad Javad Zarei: sentenced to 10 years
16. Mehdi Zarei: sentenced to 10 years
17. Amir Rahimpour: electrical engineer, sentenced to death
18. Zolfaghar Saadi: Iraqi national, sentenced to seven years
19. Mohammad Hossein Mullah-Nejad: electrical engineer, sentenced to 12 years
20. Reza Jokari: former employee of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, sentenced to 10 years
21. Manouchehr Mohammad-Ali: PhD in French literature from Paris, sentenced to 10 years
22. Behzad Hoboubi: sentenced to five years
23. Ali Johari: lifeguard, sentenced to 10 years
24. Javid Javidnia: a PhD in geophysics from the Netherlands, sentenced to 10 years
25. Ali Azarifar: a PhD in software development from Australia, sentenced to 10 years
26. Amir Abbas Samimi: a former military officer sentenced to 10 years
27. Amir Arsalan Shabani: a software developer, sentenced to 10 years
28. Javad Noor-Jamali: computer engineer, sentenced to 10 years
29. Mehdi Bootorabi: administrator of the website Persian Blog, sentenced to 10 years
30. Bijan Mostaghel: sentenced to 10 years
31. Jalil Mohammad Baroughi: an electrical engineer sentenced to 10 years
32. Masoud Mosaheb: an Iranian-Austrian dual national sentenced to 10 years
33. Mokhtar Saleh: an Iranian-Kurdish citizen sentenced to 10 years
There are scores of other inmates on Ward 4 who have been convicted on similar charges and are being held in other halls. They include the Namazis, Morad Tahbaz and the environmental activist Hooman Jokar.
Related Coverage:
IranWire Exclusive: Sex Workers in Tehran Jails
Voices From the Basement: Gay and Trans Detainees on Life in Evin Prison
Four Decades of Prison, Torture and Executions: 100 Stories, the Same Storyline
Rich and Well-Connected Prisoners Enjoy Extended Furloughs in Their Luxury Villas
Ex-Guards Fixer Jailed for Corruption Living Large in Prison
IranWire Exclusive: Cellmate Describes Torture and Humiliation of Top Student in Evin Prison
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