Legal Action Against the Director of the Law Newspaper Due to the Publication of the Report '24 Hours of Damnation'

The Tehran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor announced that the director of the Law newspaper is under legal action due to a complaint from the Prisons Organization regarding the publication of an article titled '24 Hours of Damnation' about the conditions of one of Tehran's prisons. According to the state news agency IRNA, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi on Tuesday, June 15, without naming the newspaper, called the report published in the Law newspaper 'false' and stated that the responsible director of this publication is 'under legal action' following the complaint from the Prisons Organization. He emphasized that 'many negative articles and headlines' are seen in newspapers and that media news and content should not cause 'despair and concern' among the people. The Tehran prosecutor also discussed the situation of prisons in Iran, stating that the number of prisoners in the country increases every year and that the number of prisoners is 'several times the official capacity of the prisons.' The Law newspaper had published a report on Saturday, July 13, about a prisoner in the 'Tehran Grand Prison Complex.' This report stated that this prison has 'only two hours' of water in 24 hours, which is 'very low quality and not suitable for drinking.' In the Law newspaper's report, this prisoner stated that upon entering the prison, soldiers insulted him and tore and discarded his coat and shoes, claiming that they might contain 'drugs.' According to this report, the money accompanying prisoners upon their entry to this prison is deposited into an account at Pasargad Bank, and a bank card is given to prisoners that can only be used inside the prison. After their release, prisoners can only retrieve the money remaining in that account at the prison branch. This prisoner also mentioned that at 8:30 PM every night, the names of prisoners who are to be released are announced, and 'a prisoner without money is left in the dark desert with a pair of slippers, hoping that a car will kindly take him to the city.' The 'Tehran Grand Prison Complex,' which opened in 2012, is located in the Hassan Abad area, near the Tehran-Qom road. In recent years, many reports have been published regarding the poor hygiene and nutrition conditions of prisoners in Iranian prisons. Iranian judicial officials have denied these reports while also stating that the number of prisoners is several times the capacity of the country's prisons. For instance, Asghar Jahangir, head of the Prisons Organization, stated on June 5 that the capacity of the country's prisons is 85,000, but more than 220,000 people are imprisoned.