As U.S. and Israeli airstrikes intensify across Iran, political prisoners held in some of the country’s most notorious facilities are facing an acute and immediate threat. These prisoners include those in academics, activists, labor unionists, students and teachers — essentially the building blocks and brain trust of a future Iran free from theocracy.
Yet while the Trump administration has called upon Iranians to “rise up” and take back their country, the administration has yet to articulate how it will safeguard these prisoners from being collateral in the war.
U.S. strikes have already targeted police stations, intelligence offices and detention centers, putting the very Iranians who could be a part of any regime-less Iran at risk. The Trump administration considers these legitimate targets, and many of these detention centers do indeed house Basij, the thug-like militia group that terrorizes ordinary Iranians daily, and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.
However, human rights activists are sounding the alarm at the actions, explaining that these prisoners are now caught between the apparatus of the brutal regime and the machinery of foreign-led war with no consistently articulated goal.
There are several reports from family members of prisoners that their loved ones have been moved into government-run facilities, providing the regime with human shields, and adding to the risk that a U.S. strike looking to decapitate more of the regime’s functionality will inadvertently kill political prisoners.
Hadi Ghaemi, the founder of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, or CHRI, told me this week on my podcast, “High-Key with CMT,” that many of the country’s future leaders are housed inside Tehran’s Evin complex — the nation’s most notorious prison — and other jails around the country.
“Within the political prisoners’ ward, they call it ‘Evin University’ because some of the most accomplished people in the country have been incarcerated there, and they teach each other,” Ghaemi said.
Those accomplished figures also until recently included Oscar-nominated film director Jafar Panahi, who has frequently been detained and imprisoned in Evin by the Iranian authorities for making movies. In modern-day Iran, any form of cultural dissent must be snuffed out to preserve the increasingly weakened regime’s grip on its people.
The concern for prisoners inside Evin are not unwarranted. Last year, during the 12-day war between the U.S./Israel and Iran, Israel’s defense minister said Evin was targeted as a site of “government repression.” According to Human Rights Watch, at least 80 people were killed.
On Tuesday, reports from inside Iran suggested that part of the perimeter wall of Evin Prison was struck by a U.S. or Israeli missile attack, and that sections of the prison wall were damaged.
These prisoners include those in academics, activists, labor unionists, students and teachers — essentially the building blocks and brain trust of a future Iran free from theocracy.
“That means there is a possibility that prisoners may be able to walk out, but given the [regime] special forces have taken over, it’s likely that those prisoners are sitting ducks,” Ghaemi told me. “The whim and subjective decision-making of these armed [regime] individuals who we know could just very randomly decide to start shooting certain prisoners and kill them if they feel like it. And that is extremely dangerous.”
It isn’t just Evin’s prisoners under threat. One of the most internationally recognized Iranian opposition figures, 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, was given yet another arbitrary prison sentence in early February. Shortly thereafter, Mohammadi was moved to Zanjan prison, a jail northwest of Tehran that was shaken by huge explosions from U.S. and Israeli bombs this week.
Now, compounding the danger is the collapse of internet connectivity inside the country. Metrics from NetBlocks, a nonpartisan global internet monitor, show that Iranians have been offline for more than 100 hours and internet connectivity is flatlining at 1% of ordinary levels as the conflict escalates. The regime-imposed blackout is the second this year and follows the mass communications shutdown in January, when thousands of Iranians were killed.
The Narges Foundation, a human rights organization run by Mohammadi’s family, told me on Thursday that, due to internet connectivity being heavily restricted in the country, it’s been impossible to contact lawyers inside Iran to get updates on her well-being. Mohammadi has been severely ill after years of incarceration, and has been denied medical assistance. “When they treat a Nobel laureate like this, imagine what they do to others,” the Narges Foundation said.
Another deep concern is the health and safety of the many dual nationals and foreign prisoners who are also currently incarcerated. These people — such as The Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian, who was eventually released after 544 days in an Iranian jail — have been used by the Islamic Republic regime in the past as bargaining chips in negotiations with the U.S. and European nations.
There are thought to be at least six U.S. dual nationals imprisoned, according to The Foley Foundation, which tracks and monitors American hostages overseas. These American citizens include journalist Reza Valizadeh and Kamran Hekmati, a Jewish Iranian American from New York, who has been detained for more than 280 days. A family member of another dual national told reporters this week that one of the bombs landed so close to Evin Prison that it punctured the windows and the ceiling.
Hours before the U.S. military strikes began last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Iran as a “State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention,” the first time this designation has ever been used. But there have been no formal statements from the administration about what lengths it is going to try and safeguard detained individuals.
What responsibility will the Trump administration take for the safeguarding of prisoners, and the broader civilian population to help rebuild the nation?
We know that the Islamic Republic has a wanton disregard for its own people. More than 51,000 people were rounded up by the regime and incarcerated for protesting during the January uprisings, the most violent crackdown on protests in the Islamic Republic’s history, with potentially tens of thousands of innocent Iranians killed.
But what responsibility will the Trump administration take for the safeguarding of prisoners, and the broader civilian population to help rebuild the nation after this campaign is through? Five days after a strike hit an elementary school in Minab, killing more than 160 school children and educators, the U.S. still says it is investigating what happened. However, reports on Thursday suggested the U.S. was responsible. The reality is, as the war against Iran continues, any “precision strikes” are less likely to remain precise as a conflict drags on and the margin for error is greater.
The rationales offered for this war are dizzying in number; the legalities and the debates will continue to rage for years to come. But the fact is, the horse has bolted the stable. The U.S. and Israel are now embroiled in a war that has and will continue to claim civilian lives. Both parties, but particularly Israel, have been dogged about wanting this regime to go. So, too, have many Iranians for years.
But now it’s not just a moral responsibility — it’s also in the inherent interests of the Americans and Israelis to safeguard those civilians they claim should be helping shape and build a post-Islamic Republic regime in Iran.
