Catastrophic living and sanitary conditions in Qom Central Prison
The ruling religious fascism in Iran has initiated a new wave of suppression, restrictions, and intense pressure against prisoners. The sanitary and living conditions in Langeroud Prison in Qom (Qom Central Prison) are catastrophic. Due to the lack of basic hygiene standards and severe environmental pollution, the prison wards have become filthy and infested with bedbugs, lice, and vermin, resulting in hundreds of prisoners contracting skin diseases and other infectious illnesses. Influenza and COVID-19 have spread throughout the prison. Additionally, the prisoners’ daily food rations, which were already meager, have recently been further reduced. The health of most prisoners is under serious threat. Previously, meningitis had spread among prisoners in Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan.
In Urmia Central Prison, pressure on political prisoners has intensified. Among other measures, prison henchmen have confiscated refrigerators and televisions that prisoners had purchased at their own personal expense, claiming they ‘belong to the prison.’
In Evin Prison, new restrictions have been imposed on visits for female prisoners. The duration of cabin and in-person visits has been cut in half, and after long journeys and hours of waiting, families face insults and abuse from a henchman named Rezaei, the new head of the visitation hall. On September 6, families and prisoners staged a protest in the visitation area. In recent months, Evin prisoners have endured temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, broken cooling systems, bedbug infestations, restricted fresh air time, and deprivation of sports facilities. In August, prison guards raided Ward 7 of Evin, beating political prisoners, destroying and confiscating their property, and transferring them to other locations. On September 6, 60 prisoners were transferred from Fashafouyeh Prison (Greater Tehran Central Prison) to Ward 7 of Evin, worsening overcrowding and the lack of facilities.
On September 3, 2026, henchmen in Mashhad’s Vakilabad Prison raided the ward of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, confiscating his few sports items and cutting off his access to newspapers. Mohammad Javad, a boxing champion, has been sentenced to death on charges of supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Last November, authorities also refused to allow him to attend his father’s funeral.
The Iranian Resistance once again calls on the United Nations, the Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and other human rights organizations to condemn the mullahs’ regime’s criminal treatment of prisoners and to dispatch an international fact-finding mission to visit the regime’s prisons and meet with detainees, particularly political prisoners.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
11 September 2026