Int’l Organizations Alarmed over Violations in Iran Prisons

Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
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Int’l Organizations Alarmed over Violations in Iran Prisons

Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

A lawyer who is said to have bitten off part of his tongue after being injected with an unknown substance. Videos showing guards freely beating detainees. A prisoner re-arrested after alleging rampant abuse in women’s jails.

There has long been concern about abuse in prisons in Iran but a slew of recent allegations concerning high-profile detainees and claims disseminated on social media have amplified the anxiety.

“Iran’s intelligence apparatus, in close collaboration with the revolutionary court, has turned the justice system into a cornerstone of repression,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Victims experience horrific mistreatment and are left with no means to seek redress and accountability,” Sepehri Far added.

HRW and the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran last week sounded the alarm over the case of Payam Derafshan, a prominent attorney whose clients included the jailed prize-winning rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

In allegations posted on social media, which HRW said it had independently confirmed, the lawyer, Saeed Dehghan, said Derafshan had been injected with an unknown substance soon after his arrest in June 2020. He then experienced a convulsion that caused him to bite off part of his tongue.

He was sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he is said to have been subjected to shock therapy that caused more damage but was then granted medical leave and conditional release.

“The authorities’ revolting abuse and medical negligence of a prominent human rights lawyer should make us extremely concerned about the situation of dozens of lesser-known political prisoners in Iran,” said Sepehri Far.

The latest controversy came after a group calling itself Edalet-e Ali (Justice of Ali) in August this year posted videos of leaked surveillance footage from Tehran’s Evin prison showing guards beating or mistreating inmates.

In a rare response to footage broadcast widely on Persian-language media based outside of Iran, the head of the national prisons organization, Mohammad Mehdi Haj Mohammadi, condemned the behavior as unacceptable, while judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei asked prosecutors for an investigation.

Amnesty International described the videos as just the “tip of the iceberg of a torture epidemic.”



Putin Urges Iran to Take ‘Zero Enrichment’ Nuclear Deal with US

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Putin Urges Iran to Take ‘Zero Enrichment’ Nuclear Deal with US

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The stalled indirect talks between Washington and Tehran were activated on Saturday after reports said Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped in, urging the Iranians to accept a nuclear deal that would not allow uranium enrichment.

Putin has told both US President Donald Trump and Iranian officials that he supports the idea of a nuclear deal in which Iran is unable to enrich uranium, sources familiar with those discussions told Axios.

The website said Russia has been Iran's main diplomatic backer on the nuclear issue for years, while Moscow publicly advocates for Iran's right to enrich.

But, it added, Putin has taken a tougher position in private in the wake of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.

Two sources said the Russians briefed the Israeli government about Putin's position regarding Iran's uranium enrichment.

Iran has long insisted that it must retain the ability to enrich under any deal.

Putin and other Russian officials have conveyed their support for a “zero enrichment” deal to the Iranians several times of the last few weeks, sources told Axios.

“Putin would support zero enrichment. He encouraged the Iranians to work towards that in order to make negotiations with the Americans more favorable.

The Iranians said they won't consider it,” one European official with direct knowledge of the issue said.

The Russians have made clear in public and private that if a deal is reached, they are willing to remove Iran's highly enriched uranium.

“Russia has said it would then supply Iran with 3.67% uranium for nuclear power and small quantities of 20% enriched uranium for the Tehran research reactor and the production of nuclear isotopes,” the sources told Axios.

But an informed Iranian source dismissed the Axios report. Speaking to Tasnim on Saturday, the source said Iran has not received any message from Putin regarding a zero enrichment nuclear deal with the US.

In Tehran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will “take a new form to ensure the security of its nuclear facilities.”

He reiterated Iran’s commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), saying: “Iran’s nuclear program has always been peaceful and will remain so,” stressing that Tehran “will continue to be a member of the NPT.”

On its missile program, the minister said Iran will not abandon its military and defense capabilities while it is under constant threats from Israel and the United States.

Khamenei Threatens Washington

In a related development, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a fresh threat to the US, saying American military bases in the region could be struck again at any moment.

“Striking Al Udeid Air Base is not a small incident but a major one that can be repeated,” Khamenei said.

“We are capable of reaching important American sites in the region,” he wrote in a post on X.

Khamenei also enclosed a caricature of Trump in the form of the Statue of Liberty, and title it, “A strong punch... A remarkable event that can be repeated.”

The supreme leader’s statements came while the Pentagon has acknowledged that a ballistic missile Iran fired toward Qatar late last month, in response to the American attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, directly hit Al Udeid base near Doha.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell made the remarks after the AP news agency analyzed satellite images indicating that an Iranian attack on the air base in Qatar that’s key to the US military hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications.

The Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base on June 23 came as a response to the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran — and provided Iran a way to retaliate that quickly led to a ceasefire brokered by Trump ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

The Iranian attack otherwise did little damage - likely because of the fact that the US evacuated its aircraft from the base, which is home to the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command, before the attack.

Trump also has said that Iran signaled when and how it would retaliate, allowing American and Qatari air defense to be ready for the attack, which briefly disrupted air travel in the Middle East.