Tehran's Taleghani Hospital Refuses to Admit Dialysis Patients from Evin Prison Due to Bedbug Infestation

Tehran's Taleghani Hospital announced it would refuse to accept dialysis patients from Evin Prison due to the prisoners being infested with bedbugs. Mehdi Mahmoudian, an independent journalist based in Tehran, reported this on his X account, stating that the hospital sent a can of bedbugs as evidence to the head of Evin's medical department. Meanwhile, the Mizan news agency, citing an informed source from the prison organization, denied the report by political prisoner Zia Nabavi about the presence of bedbugs in Evin's Ward 8, claiming that 'Evin Prison is one of the cleanest and most organized prisons in the country.' Previously, Zia Nabavi, a political prisoner serving his sentence in Ward 8 of Evin, described the psychological and physical torture caused by the presence of bedbugs in a text titled 'Is enduring bedbugs part of our sentence?' Additionally, Jamal Ameli, a poet and political prisoner from Ward 8, reported that he could not distinguish between skin lesions caused by the progression of his autoimmune disease and those from bites of bedbugs that are twice the size of regular ones. In a letter, Zia Nabavi stated that the 'infestation of bedbugs' in Ward 8 has caused 'psychological and physical distress' to the prisoners, asserting that 'the basic and health rights of prisoners' are being overlooked. This imprisoned student, in a letter published on Sunday, May 13, on the HRANA website, which is the media outlet of human rights activists in Iran, questioned whether 'enduring bedbugs is also part of our sentence.' He wrote about a political prisoner sentenced to five years who, despite taking 'Alprazolam,' still cannot sleep due to 'bedbug bites' on his body. This imprisoned student remarked, 'It seems the bedbugs have a work shift; they appear around 2 AM and shortly after keep him awake. He says you don’t know what it means to take Alprazolam but be kept awake by bedbugs. Several times he wanted to make noise in the middle of the night to wake everyone up. Once, he even wanted to lie down on the corridor floor, but the night supervisors did not allow it.' According to Zia Nabavi, this political prisoner has 'written a request for transfer' to a prison in his own city and is 'counting the days to escape from the sleepless nights in Hall 10 of Ward 8.' Reporters and human rights organizations have repeatedly warned about the unsanitary conditions in the Islamic Republic's prisons. Amnesty International has referred to the abuses revealed in Evin Prison as 'the tip of the iceberg of the torture epidemic in Iran.' The 'unsanitary' conditions of Qarchak and Greater Tehran prisons have also been exposed by human rights sources.