International law and basic humanity are clear: bombing civilians such as those trapped in prisons, schools and hospitals, is a war crime. But the genocidal U.S. and Israel take this charge as a compliment. Fascist Trump brags, “We’re knocking the crap out of them…. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”
Little is known as of this writing (March 6) on the current situation of thousands of prisoners in Evin, who include many of the Iran’s most prominent political prisoners – women and men, youth and elder dissidents, artists, and intellectuals. What we know is that their conditions were already dire in the first few days of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Administrative staff ran away, abandoning parts of the prison, locking the ward doors and shutting off access to food, medical care and communications to family and the outside world. The Campaign to Free Varisheh Moradi, a Kurdish activist imprisoned in Evin, reported on March 2 that the Women’s Ward and Ward 7 (one of the wards housing men political prisoners) were simply locked in with a limited supply of bread. They also shared a Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) report on March 2 that Special [NOPO “Counter-Terrorism”] Forces had replaced regular guards at Evin and that “prison officials informed the prisoners that these forces have shoot-to-kill orders, and in the event of any unrest in the prison, the prisoners themselves will be responsible for their [own] lives.”
Reza Khandan, a political prisoner in Evin who experienced the devastating Israeli strike on the prison followed by the harrowing forced transfer of prisoners in the “12-Day War” in June 2025, on March 2 wrote a letter to Iran’s Chief of Judiciary, which said in part,
Thousands of prisoners are being held illegally and without cause under the constant threat of day-and-night bombardment. Many essential services for prisoners have been cut. If this war continues, the exhaustion of food and medical supplies is predictable… If immediate action is not taken to release the prisoners, and if a horrific crime similar to or worse than the 12-Day War occurs, history will judge you most harshly. No excuse will be valid, and you will be held accountable before the court of justice.
Narges Foundation, which includes exiled family members of imprisoned 2023 Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi, has verified similar reports of lockdowns cutting access to prisoners in the Rasht and Ghezel Hesar prisons. The latter is the largest dungeon in Iran and the political hub of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” prisoner hunger strike movement.
Meanwhile, it was reported that Greater Tehran Penitentiary witnessed a possible massacre by guards following a U.S. bomb strike. Independent verification remains difficult due to the severe communications blackout but initial reports indicate that a missile strike targeted its administrative wing, causing several walls to collapse; and as inmates tried to exit their damaged cells or the facility itself, guards/security forces reportedly opened fire on prisoners with live ammunition. Sources describe the scene as a "massacre," with a "large number" of prisoners killed while attempting to flee the collapsing infrastructure or the ensuing chaos.
Burn The Cage posted on March 2:
We ask all dear people not to leave the families of prisoners alone in these sensitive and dangerous circumstances and to participate in the rally against the guards and demand the release of the prisoners. The lives of all prisoners are in danger. BE THEIR VOICE.
Kurdish Political Prisoners Targeted
In Mahabad Prison in western Iran, KHRN reported that according to an informed source, after U.S.-Israeli air strikes on March 3 blew out windows of many homes and shops near the prison, prisoners set fire to blankets and demanded to be released. Special forces attacked the prisoners by firing tear gas.
They said hundreds of non-political prisoners in the cities of Marivan, Urmia, Naqdeh, Salmas and Kamyaran (in Kurdish areas of Iran) have been temporarily released on bail in a situation where many government officials were not to be found. In Urmia, political and religious prisoners gathered in front of the guard post after delivering a letter demanding to be similarly released on bail or furloughed, but they were denied.
The U.S. and Israel have massively attacked the oppressed Kurdish populated areas of Iran, where they hope weakening the military forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) will draw Kurdish groups into supporting the U.S.-Israeli war. This has put a target on the backs of the Kurdish people, not only because they are being bombed from the air, but because the fascist IRI is targeting the entire Kurdish population and trying to paint all opposition as espionage or collaboration with the CIA and the Israeli secret police Mossad. For example, in the major Kurdish city of Sanandaj, the IRGC sent a wave of text messages to citizens’ phones describing any movement of citizens and presence on the streets as “direct cooperation with the enemy” and threatened them with a “strong fist.”
This context in which Kurdish people are being literally caught between U.S.-Israeli bombs and IRI drone attacks against Kurdish groups sets the stage for the political prisoners in Kurdish prisons being specifically banned from release even in conditions of bombardment and government shutdowns.
A post from Narges.foundation put the responsibility for the protection the prisoners in wartime at the doorstep of both sides:
Following the U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran starting February 28, 2026, those held behind bars solely for exercising their right to free speech now face an even greater threat to their lives. History has shown that the Islamic Republic has repeatedly and systematically exploited war to escalate violence against political prisoners. …There is also grave concern that, amidst continued blackout, death sentences may be carried out in secrecy without notification to lawyers or families of detainees. The current information blackout likely masks similar humanitarian disasters in detention facilities across Iran….
Narges Foundation also co-posted a video which noted that many thousands of detainees from the January 2026 uprising are being held incommunicado at “black sites” like Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases, police stations, and secret detention centers, all of which are targets for U.S.-Israeli bombs.
Stop the U.S.-Israeli War of Aggression! Stop the Executions and Free ALL Political Prisoners in Iran NOW!
The IRI regime has offered the people in Iran, the region, and the rest of the world nothing but theocratic fascist-capitalist nightmare for 47 years. But U.S. capitalist-imperialists gangsters and their “Scarface” little friend Israel is a bigger horror-show.
A monster duet like US and Israel, who have committed over 2 years of genocide against the Palestinian people—not to mention the U.S. worldwide coups of plunder and 75 years of apartheid rule in Israel—cannot and will not bring anything good to the people of Iran. People in the U.S. have a special responsibility to stand with the Iranian people and against the imperialist-led murder being committed in our name.
The U.S.-Israeli assault has intensified the danger for the political prisoners. Many of them are and have been courageously resisting the dark-age misogynist regime in an implacable fight for a far better world. They must be defended as part of a struggle for justice and over which way forward for Iran and our planet.
We close with part of a solidarity statement sent by Quemar La Jaula (Spanish for Free the Birds) in Colombia (read in full) to IEC’s January 28 Day of Grassroots Solidarity:
Their struggle awakes in us an enormous appreciation and respect; it is a model of action that must be known and supported in all corners of the planet….The Iranian people and political prisoners are not alone, the people of Iran are our people, their struggle is our struggle, and it is our duty to work so that their struggle not only invokes the world’s solidarity but that it serves as an inspiration to advance in the struggle to put an end to all the oppression and exploitation that weighs on humanity.
In the closing words of the IEC Emergency Appeal signed by over 5,000 people in 50 countries:
All of Iran's political prisoners must be unconditionally and immediately released
The governments of the U.S. and Iran act from their national interests. And, in this instance, we the people of the U.S. and Iran, along with the people of the world, have OUR shared interests, as part of getting to a better world: to unite to defend the political prisoners of Iran. In the U.S., we have a special responsibility to unite very broadly against this vile repression by the IRI, and to actively oppose any war moves by the U.S. government that would bring even more unbearable suffering to the people of Iran.
We demand of the Islamic Republic of Iran: FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW! We say to the U.S government: STOP WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S. SANCTIONS!
Visit the IEC "Donate & Act in Support" page for things you can do.