The riot began in the prison's cell-block 1 and quickly spread to other blocks as prisoners broke their cell doors. On the orders of Khorramabad's city council, Revolutionary Guards and members of the State Security Force opened fire and used tear gas canisters.
In the ensuing clashes, mullahs Keshvari, a Guard, Changiz Rassoulzadeh, and a prisoner, Shir-Mohammad Biranvand, were killed. Eight more Guards were seriously wounded. The Guards Corps' special forces arrested other rebellious prisoners.
To prevent prisoners from escaping and a leak in the news about the riot, the clerical regime dispatched more than 150 members of the Guards Corps' special and anti-riot forces to the area, who moved to control the entire region.
The Guards were stationed in the city's Azadi square, where the prison is located, and streets leading to it, including Sabzeh-meidan, Pol-e Behdari, Shamshir-Abad and Shaqayeq streets.
Reports say that the regime plans to quickly execute several of those arrested to intimidate and terrorize the public. Akbar Akbari, Massoud Mohammadi, Reza Jamshidi, Alireza Mohammadi, Jamshid Heidari, Mohammad Akhtari and Behzad Khazai, a number of whom are the clerical regime's political opponents, are among those on death row.
Two months ago, 18 Mojahedin supporters, incarcerated in Khorramabad prison, were hanged.
Previously, officials had acknowledged the deteriorating state and the lack of the minimum living conditions in the prisons. Head of the State Prisons Organization Morteza Bakhtiari admitted that due to shortage of space, prison space allotted to each prisoner is seven times smaller than international standards. Instead of 17.5 sq. meters, only 2.5 sq. meters are allocated to each prisoner.
The Iranian Resistance draws the attention of the United Nations Secretary General, the Human Rights Commission and other UN organs to the savage suppression of prisoners in Khorramabad prison and their imminent execution.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 15, 1999
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