According to information received from inside Lakan Prison in the city of Rasht, in northern Iran, unusual activities began at the prison in the days leading up to the bloody killings on Thursday and Friday, January 8 and 9. Several days before these events, all inmates were gathered together, about half of the prison space was cleared of previous prisoners and separated, and at the same time a large number of security forces and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful military-security force of Iran’s regime, entered the prison.
From Thursday until Sunday, all contact with the prison was completely cut off. After limited communication was restored, it became clear that dozens of gunshot-wounded individuals with severe injuries and heavy bleeding had been transferred to prison wounded people who urgently required hospital treatment but were instead brought to the prison by IRGC forces and the IRGC Intelligence Organization.
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According to these reports, more than half of these wounded individuals have died inside the prison due to the lack of medical care, torture, and inhumane conditions. The prison infirmary lacks even the most basic medical facilities, and no effective services have been provided even for primary measures such as administering intravenous fluids or changing dressings.
It has also been reported that more than 2,000 newly detained individuals are being held in halls separate from previous prisoner halls without heating systems, without blankets, without warm clothing, and with extremely limited food. These detainees are subjected to continuous torture, and the number of those arrested is increasing daily.
This information indicates that Lakan Prison in Rasht has effectively turned into a site for the deaths of the wounded and the mass repression of detainees. Families in Rasht and surrounding areas who are searching for missing loved ones are urged to go to Lakan Prison to seek information about their status.
What is taking place constitutes a series of killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and widespread human rights violations, for which the security institutions and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps bear direct responsibility. This report is published as an urgent warning to prevent the continuation of these crimes, and the source has been withheld for security reasons.
