Zia Nabavi's Account of Bed Bugs in Ward 8 of Evin Prison: Basic Rights of Prisoners Ignored

Zia Nabavi, a political prisoner incarcerated in Evin, stated in a letter that the "infestation of bed bugs" in Ward 8 has caused "mental and physical distress" for prisoners, claiming that "basic and sanitary rights of prisoners" are being overlooked. In a letter published on Sunday, May 13, on the website of HRANA, the media organ of human rights activists in Iran, he questioned whether "enduring bed bug torture is part of our sentence". He wrote about a political prisoner sentenced to five years who, despite taking Alprazolam, cannot sleep because of "the marks of bed bug bites" on his body. This imprisoned student noted: "It seems the bed bugs have a work shift; they appear around 2 AM and shortly after, they keep him awake. He says you don't know what it means to take Alprazolam but be kept awake by bed bugs. Several times he wanted to make noise in the middle of the night to wake everyone up. Once he even wanted to lie down in the corridor, but the night guards did not allow it." According to Zia Nabavi, the mentioned political prisoner has "written a request for his transfer" to his local prison and is "counting the days until he can escape the sleepless nights in Hall 10 of Ward 8." Zia Nabavi stated that he was transferred to the ward on April 7 and that going to "Ward 4 or Ward 8" was not a serious issue for him until he heard descriptions of the bed bugs in Ward 8, which suddenly changed everything, as he had previously experienced cohabitation with bed bugs in Karoun Prison in Ahvaz and knew exactly what someone meant when they spoke of the misery of encountering bed bugs. This political prisoner added: "I still remember the nights I searched for them with a lit lighter in my bed, sometimes placing the hot metal part of the lighter on the bite marks to replace the deep burning sensation of the bed bug bite with the superficial burning of the hot metal. All these memories and lived experiences had prepared me for a tough confrontation, but the truth is that the reality ahead was heavier than I had imagined." He also described sharing a cell with a chemical engineer who managed to create a solution using "available items from the prisoners" that "kills the bed bugs and is harmless to humans" and added: "The engineer had seen my sleepless nights due to the bed bugs and it was not hard to guess the bite marks on my hands and legs, so I was willing to participate in his efforts, especially since the poison provided by the prison was ineffective and had an unpleasant odor." Zia Nabavi explained that at the request of this chemical engineer to collect the biting insects in a disposable cup, he managed to "catch 14 bed bugs in two hours" and on the second night, he caught 11 bed bugs. He added: "The truth is that the number of bed bugs was astonishing even to me. When I looked at the bed bugs trapped in the plastic cups and imagined their potential population in the ward, I told myself this is a bed bug ecosystem. They are not the extras; we are the ones who need to go." This political prisoner pointed out instances of "the sufferings of being a prisoner" that generally include "small and trivial issues" that are not reported, saying: "For myself, the darker side of the matter is that I feel there is no decisive and fundamental solution for eradicating the bed bugs in this ward. Honestly, as much as I look at the old structure of this building and its damp, plastered walls and imagine the crowd inside, I cannot believe that other than completely evacuating this ward and renovating and thoroughly fumigating it, there is a way to resolve this issue." He also stated that some prisoners have such severe hardships that the bed bug issue does not even count for them, and some consider it "part of the natural condition of being imprisoned" that "must be endured and coped with", but it is "unlikely" that anyone would consider "enduring bed bug torture as part of our sentence." Zia Nabavi, a political activist who has previously spent years in prison, was incarcerated on April 7 after visiting the first branch of the Evin Court to serve his one-year sentence. This sentence was issued last August by "Iman Afshari", the head of Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran, following Zia Nabavi's protest against the issue of "serial poisoning of school students", and was confirmed by Branch 36 of the Tehran Court of Appeals. Reporters and human rights organizations have repeatedly warned about the unsanitary conditions in the prisons of the Islamic Republic in Iran. For instance, Amnesty International has referred to the revealed abuses in Evin Prison in Tehran as "the tip of the iceberg of the torture epidemic in Iran". Additionally, the "unsanitary" conditions of the Qarchak and Greater Tehran prisons have been exposed by human rights sources. In this context, a knowledgeable source described the situation in Behbahan prison as "hell", stating that this prison lacks adequate sanitary, medical, and welfare facilities for prisoners.