Top Judge Blames Evin Prison Fire on Enemies

“What occurred in the Evin Prison was a crime committed by a few of the enemy’s elements,” the Judiciary chief said in a Monday meeting of the Judiciary’s Supreme Council.

Four inmates died of smoke inhalation in the fire that broke out in the prison in the northwest of Tehran on Saturday night. Four other prisoners injured in the incident succumbed to injuries on Sunday evening.

The top judge said the criminal act involved a few people who started a fire at a workshop of the prison that had been set up to provide employment for the inmates and help their families.

During the incident, an assembly hall was set ablaze which has been constructed to allow the prisoners to develop their talents and give them training, he added.

The top judge said the enemy’s elements set fire exactly to a center that was used to improve the conditions of the inmates and help their families, so the crime was designed to kill and injure a number of prisoners and leave their families in anguish.

Mohseni Ejei said he has instructed the Prisons Organization of Iran to keep providing treatment for the inmates injured in the incident, including the criminal who had a hand in the crime.

The top judge also ordered the authorities at the Prisons Organization of Iran and the Judiciary’s Security and Intelligence Center to cooperate with the security forces to identify the main elements behind the crime at the Evin Prison and bring them to justice.

“Undoubtedly, the perpetrators of the crime in the Evin Prison prepared the ground for the Zionist, American and British warmongering and chaos-creating centers and offices,” he stated, adding that US and British news media and the other anti-Iranian centers were acting like a “war room” during the night when the crime was committed, just like the days of recent riots in Iran.