Amnesty Condemns ‘Impunity’ Over Deaths in Custody in Iran

In this undated frame grab taken from video shared with The Associated Press by a self-identified hacker group called "The Justice of Ali," guards drag an emaciated prisoner, at Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. (The Justice of Ali via AP)
In this undated frame grab taken from video shared with The Associated Press by a self-identified hacker group called "The Justice of Ali," guards drag an emaciated prisoner, at Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. (The Justice of Ali via AP)
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Amnesty Condemns ‘Impunity’ Over Deaths in Custody in Iran

In this undated frame grab taken from video shared with The Associated Press by a self-identified hacker group called "The Justice of Ali," guards drag an emaciated prisoner, at Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. (The Justice of Ali via AP)
In this undated frame grab taken from video shared with The Associated Press by a self-identified hacker group called "The Justice of Ali," guards drag an emaciated prisoner, at Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. (The Justice of Ali via AP)

Amnesty International has condemned the climate of impunity that prevails in Iran over more than 70 deaths in custody reported in the past 10 years.

"Iranian authorities have failed to provide accountability for at least 72 deaths in custody since January 2010, despite credible reports that they resulted from torture or other ill-treatment or the lethal use of firearms and tear gas by officials," AI said.

In a statement issued last Wednesday, the London-based rights group said the latest documented case concerns Yaser Mangouri, aged 31, whose death was reported to his family by ministry of intelligence officials in Urumieh, West Azerbaijan province on September 8, 2021.

Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa Regional Director at Amnesty International said reports of the death of Mangouri in suspicious circumstances further exposes how the prevailing climate of impunity further emboldens security forces to violate prisoners’ right to life without any fear of consequence or accountability.

“The authorities’ systemic refusal to conduct any independent investigations into these deaths in custody is a grim reflection of the normalization of the arbitrary deprivation of life by state authorities,” she noted.

In its report, AI said that since January 2010, at least 72 deaths occurred at 42 prisons and detention centers in 16 provinces across the country.

It showed that in 46 of the deaths in custody cases, informed sources reported that the death resulted from physical torture or other ill-treatment at the hands of intelligence and security agents or prison officials.

The rights group added that a further 15 followed the lethal use of firearms and/or tear gas by prison security guards to suppress prison protests over COVID-19 safety fears, also according to credible sources.

In the remaining 11 cases, the deaths occurred in suspicious circumstances, but no further details about potential causes were available. The majority of deaths recorded took place since 2015.

Last August 24, leaked surveillance footage from Iran’s Evin prison showed appalling abuse of prisoners, reminding of the impunity granted to prison officials in Iran who subject those in their custody to torture and other cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment.

Amnesty International accused Iranian authorities of typically blaming deaths in custody on suicide, drug overdose or illness in a rushed manner and without conducting any independent and transparent investigations.



Spain, Portugal Hunt for Cause of Power Outage as Electricity Returns 

People sit in candlelight and use mobile phone flashlights in the dark during a nationwide power outage at Plaza Mayor square in Madrid, Spain, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
People sit in candlelight and use mobile phone flashlights in the dark during a nationwide power outage at Plaza Mayor square in Madrid, Spain, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
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Spain, Portugal Hunt for Cause of Power Outage as Electricity Returns 

People sit in candlelight and use mobile phone flashlights in the dark during a nationwide power outage at Plaza Mayor square in Madrid, Spain, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
People sit in candlelight and use mobile phone flashlights in the dark during a nationwide power outage at Plaza Mayor square in Madrid, Spain, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)

Electricity had been restored to most of Spain and Portugal early on Tuesday after huge nationwide blackouts, although authorities were still trying to find out what caused the sudden outage. 

In Spain, schools and offices reopened, public transport restarted after long delays, traffic gridlock eased and many hospitals had recovered power while others continued to operate on generators. 

Spain's electricity grid operator Red Electrica said it was able to supply virtually all of the country's electricity demand on Tuesday morning, while Portugal's equivalent, REN, said that by late on Monday it had all 89 power substations in the country back up and running. 

The authorities are now being pressed for an explanation of what caused one of the biggest power outages ever seen in Europe. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday night the country had suffered a precipitous loss of 15GW of electricity generation in five seconds at around midday, equivalent to 60% of national demand. 

The grid instability caused the Spanish and French electricity interconnection through the Pyrenees mountains to split, resulting in a general collapse of the Spanish system, Red Electrica's chief of operations Eduardo Prieto told reporters on Monday evening. Some areas in France suffered brief outages on Monday. 

Spain is one of Europe's biggest producers of renewable energy, but Monday's shutdown has already sparked debate about whether the volatility of supply from solar or wind has made its power systems more vulnerable to such an outage. 

John Kemp, an energy analyst and public policy specialist, said finding clear root causes for the sequence of failures that contributed to the blackout could take investigators several months. 

"The region has one of the world’s highest penetrations of renewable generation from wind and solar so the blackout will be a case study of how renewable generators impact on reliability as well as restarting after widespread failure," he said. 

In Portugal, the government said hospitals were back up and running, airports were operational albeit with hangover delays in Lisbon, while the capital's metro was restarting operations and trains were running. 

Marc Ferracci, the French Industry Minister, told RTL radio station on Tuesday that France was better prepared to prevent blackouts such as the one suffered by Spain and Portugal and that the impact in France had been “minimal”. 

COUNTING COSTS 

Madrid's authorities put on free buses to get people to work on Tuesday and the metro and some trains started to operate, although with delays. 

Overnight, rail travelers were stranded in some of Spain's main hubs, as all trains were cancelled. In Madrid, some were forced to bed down overnight in the station or in the nearby Movistar Arena concert venue. 

A state of emergency was declared across many Spanish regions on Monday, with the deployment of 30,000 police. In Atocha station in Madrid, police and Red Cross workers handed out blankets and bottles of water. 

In Barcelona on Tuesday morning, restaurant owners counted the cost of lost produce after half a day of their fridges and freezers being off. 

Maria Luisa Pinol, 63, owner of an establishment in the city, told Reuters late on Monday that she had been forced to temporarily close her doors. 

"It’s impossible to serve food," she said. "(We’re) scared it will go bad, that we have to throw away everything away. We don’t know if the insurance will cover it, and, that's an economic loss besides other things too."