🔻Shahriar Shams’ account, of the “unfavorable” conditions inside Damghan prison

Shahriar Shams, a prisoner held in Damghan Prison, has explained the conditions of political prisoners and the unfavorable situation in this small city’s prison in an audio file.

Shahriar Shams, a dismissed student from Islamic Azad University, Tehran North, was arrested on Monday, 19 Mordad of this year, at his family home by security forces.

This political prisoner says that in his ward there are about 50 prisoners. About 22 to 23 of them are political prisoners (accused or convicted), and the rest are related to ordinary crimes, with no separation of offenses.

According to Shahriar Shams, political prisoners in Damghan prison are mostly detainees who were arrested during the protests in December 1404 (Dey 1404) that, “after arrest, case-building, and renewed suppression, are currently either accused or convicted and are serving time in prison.”

During the protests of Dey 1404, the city of Damghan saw demonstrations, but so far the Iranian government has not officially released statistics on the number of detainees in this city. Limited information is also available about the situation in Damghan prison.

Shahriar Shams says that all prisoners were subjected to beating and torture by enforcement officers, including the Ministry of Intelligence, “such that severe bruising marks on their bodies and faces were visible, and interrogators obtained forced confessions from the prisoners through threats, insults, beating, flogging, and even threats of and sexual abuse of prisoners.”