Geneva, Switzerland. The head of a United Nations investigation said an Israeli airstrike on Tehran’s Evin prison last June was a war crime, and warned that the current US-Israeli bombing campaign risks intensifying domestic repression inside Iran.
UN findings on Evin prison strike
Sara Hossain, chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, told the UN Human Rights Council that the investigation found reasonable grounds to believe Israel committed the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against a civilian object. She said 80 people were killed in the strike, including one child and eight women.
Iranian authorities had previously said more than 70 people died when Israel struck the facility last June during an air war with Iran.
Concerns over detainees and prison conditions
Evin prison, known for holding political prisoners, has also sustained damage in the latest round of US-Israeli strikes, raising fears for detainees including a British couple.
UN-appointed rights expert Mai Sato voiced concern about prisoners rounded up during mass protests in January, saying families had been unable to contact relatives and that food and medicines were in increasingly short supply inside prisons.
Warning on impact of external military action
Hossain’s report, based on interviews with victims and witnesses, satellite imagery and other documents, cautioned that external military action did not deliver accountability or meaningful change. She said it instead risks intensifying domestic repression, pointing to a rise in executions following last year’s strikes.
Responses from Israel and Iran
Israel has disengaged from the Human Rights Council and left its seat empty. There was no immediate response to requests for comment from the prime minister’s office, the foreign ministry or the military.
Iran’s ambassador, Ali Bahreini, called for condemnation of the US-Israeli strikes, which he said had killed more than 1,300 people in Iran.
What impact do you think international investigations have on accountability during armed conflicts?
