The 'Endless' List of Prisoners Who Died in the Islamic Republic's Custody; Jawad Rouhi is the Latest Case

The death of Jawad Rouhi, a detained protester in Nowshahr, announced on Thursday, September 9, is the latest case of prisoners killed in Iranian government prisons. Human rights sources have described Jawad Rouhi's death as 'suspicious' and reported severe physical and psychological torture endured by this 33-year-old protester during his detention. The website Dadban has also criticized the continued imprisonment of Jawad Rouhi despite his 'deteriorating physical and mental conditions' prior to his death. Human rights activists attribute the deaths of prisoners during the Islamic Republic era to torture, lack of medical care, and negligence by prison officials. Amnesty International reported in a 2022 report that at least 96 prisoners died in the 1990s in Iran, citing 'obstruction of emergency transfers of prisoners to hospitals' as one of the main reasons for these deaths. Baktash Abtin, a poet, filmmaker, and secretary of the Iranian Writers' Association, died in January 2022 after contracting COVID-19 in prison and being transferred late to a hospital. Behnam Mahjoubi, a detained Gonabadi Dervish, died in February 2021 due to what was declared 'drug poisoning' after being transferred from Evin Prison to Loghman Hospital. Shahin Naseri, a prisoner who witnessed the torture of Navid Afkari, also died in 2021 under 'suspicious circumstances' in solitary confinement at Greater Tehran Prison. According to the Iran Human Rights Campaign, at least twenty political prisoners died in the 1980s in Iranian government prisons. Some of the deceased include Zahra Kazemi, Akbar Mohammadi, Zahra Bani-Yaqoub, Amir Javadi-Far, Mohsen Rouh-al-Amini, Mohammad Kamrani, Hoda Saber, Omid Reza Mir-Siyafi, and Ramin Aghazadeh Ghahremani. Amir Javadi-Far, Mohsen Rouh-al-Amini, Mohammad Kamrani, and Ramin Aghazadeh Ghahremani were among those arrested during the protests against the 2009 presidential election results who died during torture in Kahrizak detention center. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, died in 2003 after being arrested and 'beaten during interrogation,' leading to her deteriorating health and subsequent death after being transferred to a hospital. Among the prisoners who died in the 1970s, Ali Akbar Saidi Sirjani, a writer and political activist, is notable for dying in prison in 1994. Human rights organizations have consistently criticized the 'systematic impunity' of human rights violators in Iran. For example, Saeed Mortazavi, the former prosecutor of Tehran and one of the main suspects in the deaths of at least three detainees in Kahrizak, was acquitted in 2021 of charges of complicity in the murder of protesters in 2009. According to Amnesty International, impunity has allowed prison officials to 'continue depriving dying prisoners of medical care.' In its report titled 'Sick Prisoners in the Death Waiting Room,' published on April 13, 2022, this human rights organization called for the collection of evidence related to the most serious international crimes committed in Iran to facilitate fair trials in the future.