10 Iranian Jails the Regime Uses To Brutalize Political Prisoners

Iran routinely detains and imprisons citizens who publicly question the regime. The suffering of these political prisoners is immense: Inmates have reported pervasive sexual assault, beatings, sleep deprivation, inedible food, prolonged solitary confinement, overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, denial of medical care, and the extraction of false confessions subsequently broadcast on state television. This brutality violates the Islamic Republic’s own constitution, which affirms personal dignity, justice, due process, and freedom from arbitrary detention and torture. In 2023, the United States sanctioned Gholamali Mohammadi, the head of Iran’s Prisons Organization, which oversees all of Iran’s jails, for his role in serious human rights abuses.

While Evin Prison may be the most notorious, other facilities are also well-known in Iran for their cruelty. This publication provides brief profiles of 10 violent prisons, including two smaller, unofficial jails controlled respectively by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence (MOI). Collectively, the profiles paint a portrait of a fundamentally illegitimate regime that imposes its will through force.

Adel Abad Prison

Located in the southwestern city of Shiraz, Adel Abad Prison was the site of 85 executions in 2024, making it the “second most active prison for executions in Iran,” according to the Human Rights Activists New Agency. In 2020, the Islamic Republic hung prominent championship wrestler Navid Afkari, 27, at the prison after torturing him following his 2018 arrest.

The United States sanctioned Adel Abad Prison in 2020, citing “incidence of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary detentions, and denials of the right to liberty of those seeking only to practice their faith, peacefully assemble, or to express themselves.” The European Union followed suit in April 2025, noting, “Several hostages from European countries have been unlawfully detained in this prison, where their access to a fair trial has been denied and where they have experienced severe violations of their most basic rights.”

MOI’s Detention Center No. 100

Located in the southwestern Iranian city of Shiraz, this site is one of the MOI’s unofficial facilities used to torture political activists and extract forced confessions. MOI transfers many detainees between the center and Adel Abad Prison. Navid Afkari and his brothers, Habib and Vahid, confessed to fabricated charges after enduring beatings and threats of execution at the center prior to his execution at Adel Abad, according to the news site IranWire.

Political prisoners and journalists held in the prison for their participation in the 2009 Green Movement reported severe abuse, including sleep deprivation, hospitalization due to torture, and denial of medication. Labor activist Mohammad Davari faced such abuse in the prison in December 2024. His lawyer reported that he endured torture, with forensic doctors confirming bruising, wounds, and infections. Davari protested with a hunger strike. The regime transferred him to Adel Abad in January 2025.

Qarchak Women’s Prison

Located in Tehran province, Qarchak Women’s Prison is “one of the darkest symbols of systematic human rights violations” in Iran, according to the Norway-based nonprofit Iran Human Rights. The jail has “deplorable conditions, including contaminated water, pest infestations and severe overcrowding,” a March 2025 report of the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran said. “Sanitary pads must be purchased from the prison shop, creating particular hardship for women abandoned by their families and who have no financial resources.” Many children reside with their mothers in the jail.

Prominent political prisoners at Qarchak have included Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, both of whom the regime falsely accused of espionage. The United States sanctioned Qarchak in 2020. A 2021 European Parliament resolution stated that Qarchak officials deliberately housed political prisoner Shakila Monfared with inmates convicted of violent crimes. The European Union sanctioned the prison in 2023, noting that its detainees include “participants in peaceful pro-democracy protests.”

Vakilabad Prison

Located in the city of Mashhad, Vakilabad Prison is home to numerous dissidents and has a history of detaining foreign nationals. Prominent political prisoners include Fatemeh Sepehri, a women’s rights activist who previously signed an open letter calling for the resignation of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The regime imprisoned French blogger and tourist Benjamin Brière in Vakilabad from 2020 to 2023, falsely accusing him of spying and “spreading propaganda against the system.” U.S. Navy veteran Michael White was also a hostage in Vakilabad from 2018 to 2020. Tehran freed him in exchange for America’s early release of a U.S.-Iranian prisoner who had violated U.S. sanctions laws.

In 2010 and 2011, Iran secretly executed more than 365 people in Vakilabad, most on drug charges, including many foreign nationals. The United States sanctioned Vakilabad in 2020.

Zahedan Prison

Located in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Zahedan Prison — described by IranWire as “Hell on Earth” — holds more than 2,000 inmates in a facility designed only for a few hundred. Many Iranians who participated in the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests are held there. “The lack of medical care in the prison contributes to countless deaths,” including protester Jamshid Gorgij, who perished from cardiac arrest as “a direct result of medical neglect,” IranWire reported.

The United States sanctioned Zahedan in 2021, citing the jail’s execution of Hassan Dehvari, a Baluch political prisoner who had peacefully protested and critiqued the regime. The European Union followed suit in 2023, noting “that mass executions have occurred within the penitentiary.” In 2022, the United States sanctioned Morteza Piri, the warden of Zahedan, and Mohammad Hossein Khosravi, a former warden. The European Union and the United Kingdom sanctioned both as well in 2023.

Isfahan Central Prison

Located in central Iran, Isfahan Central Prison — also known as Dastgerd Prison — has housed both famous and lesser-known dissidents. Tehran incarcerated prominent anti-regime Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests for his songs criticizing the Islamic Republic. The regime broadcast a false confession extracted under duress on state television and sentenced him to death, but Iran’s Supreme Court overturned the sentence. The judiciary released him in December 2024. Tehran briefly rearrested him in June 2025.

The United States sanctioned Isfahan Central Prison in 2021, citing the execution there of Mostafa Salehi, an electrical generator repairman, after he protested the regime in December 2017 and January 2018. The European Union sanctioned the prison in 2023, noting that it “is frequently used to detain political prisoners and house them in inadequate conditions.”

Orumiyeh Prison

Located in West Azerbaijan province, Orumiyeh Prison — also known as Urmia Central Prison — routinely tortures and kills political prisoners. In June 2025, the regime executed Edris Ali, Azad Shojaei, and Rasoul Ahmad at the jail on false charges of spying for Israel. In an April 2025 letter, political prisoner Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri, currently on death row, accused jail officials of torturing him, including beatings, waterboarding, mock executions, electric shocks, and sleep deprivation. Other inmates have routinely reported similar treatment. Prisoners’ despair has led to suicides.

The United States sanctioned Orumiyeh in 2020, noting that the prison “has subjected members of ethnic and religious minority groups and political prisoners to abuse, including beatings and floggings.” Washington sanctioned the jail’s head, Dariush Bakhshi, in 2023, asserting that prison “officials under Bakshi’s oversight have used their positions of power to coerce women inmates into having sexual relations in exchange for better treatment, such as short furloughs from prison.”

Greater Tehran Penitentiary — Fashafouyeh Prison

Originally designated to house detainees charged with drug trafficking, the Greater Tehran Penitentiary, also known as Fashafouyeh Prison, now holds political prisoners as well, forcing them to share cells with violent offenders. In July 2025, political prisoners reported that jail officials forcibly stripped their female relatives and subjected them to degrading searches during visits, a common method of humiliation intended to pressure inmates. In a 2021 statement, 28 political prisoners described enduring psychological torture in solitary confinement, dehumanizing interrogations, and home raids that extended harassment to their families.

The State Department’s 2020 and 2023 reports on human rights practices in Iran highlighted the penitentiary’s “use of cruel and prolonged torture of political opponents,” with the 2020 report also noting that officials at the jail had “flogged protester Mohamad Bagher Souri.” The United States sanctioned the prison in 2020. In 2021, the European Union sanctioned Fashafouyeh for subjecting political prisoners, including minors, to “torture and inhumane treatment” by “wounding them with boiling water and through denial of medical treatment.” In 2022, Washington sanctioned Hedayat Farzadi, a former director of the penitentiary.

Ghezel Hesar Prison

Situated in the north-central Iranian city of Karaj, Ghezel Hesar Prison is notorious for executing political prisoners. Jail officials tortured Mohsen Langarneshin, a political prisoner falsely accused of spying for Israel, for two years, and executed him in April 2025. Among those still imprisoned are Reza Mohammad Hosseini and Arsham Rezai, who face ongoing torture and threats of sexual violence. Ten jailed dissidents reported in 2024 that security forces assaulted them for exposing the growing wave of executions in Ghezel Hesar.

In 2024, the United States sanctioned the prison for “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment” and for “severe beatings of political prisoners” protesting the executions carried out at the jail. While the European Union has not sanctioned the prison, the European Parliament adopted a motion in April 2025 condemning the death sentences handed down to political activists Behrouz Ehsani Eslamloo and Mehdi Hassani, who remained on death row at the facility until their execution on July 26.

IRGC’s Sarallah A-1 Detention Center

This secret jail operates under the Sarallah IRGC Command, a base tasked with quashing civic movements by coordinating between various pillars of the regime’s repression apparatus. Testimonies from former prisoners, corroborated by the Iran Prison Atlas, indicate the facility is likely located near Tehran, though its exact location remains undisclosed. Prison officials blindfold detainees throughout the transfer from the arrest site, with IRGC guards monitoring them and curtains blocking all views from inside the vehicle.

The Iran Prison Atlas revealed in 2020 that the facility has housed many protesters to extract forced confessions, including those arrested by Basij and IRGC forces during the nationwide 2017-2018 uprising. Prisoners resided in small, solitary cells, faced shortages of hygiene supplies and clothing, and lacked access to outdoor space. Citing former political prisoners, IranWire reported in 2020 that security forces have subjected detainees to threats of sexual violence during interrogations after compelling them to fully undress.

Tzvi Kahn is a research fellow and senior editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Tzvi and Janatan on X @TzviKahn and @JanatanSayeh. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on foreign policy and national security.