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Hedayatollah Farzadi, born July 25, 1971 in Basht, Iran, has been a fixture of the Iranian regime’s brutal prison system for over two decades. He began his career as director of a forced labor camp in the early 2000s and later rose through the ranks, overseeing some of the most infamous detention centers in the country. Between 2007 and 2017, he served as director of Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah, a facility so notorious for abuse that inmates dubbed it “the last station on Earth.” Kurdish political prisoner Rabin Rahmani, who spent two years under Farzadi’s rule there, described public amputations and psychological torture as routine. One of Farzadi’s tactics was placing political prisoners among drug users and violent offenders to break their spirit and silence dissent.
From 2017 to 2019, Farzadi was appointed director of the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafouyeh), where his pattern of abuse continued. During his tenure:
- Political prisoner Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali was murdered by two violent inmates placed in the same ward, in a direct violation of crime segregation rules. His parents explicitly blamed Farzadi, calling him their son’s killer.
- Multiple deaths and injuries occurred due to medical neglect, including the case of a 27-year-old who died from untreated pneumonia.
- Prisoner Soheil Arabi was severely beaten during interrogation without receiving proper medical care.
- Members of the Gonabadi Dervish community were transferred to the prison in a wounded state and denied treatment, with one Dervish threatened by Farzadi for leaking audio about prison conditions.
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Despite this track record, Farzadi was not prosecuted but instead promoted. After two years serving as inspector general of the national prison system, he was named director of Evin Prison in September 2022. His appointment followed the dismissal of former director Hamid Mohammadi after footage leaked from hacked CCTV cameras exposed scenes of torture and abuse inside Evin Prison. The leak prompted rare international attention but no internal accountability.
Evin Prison, under Farzadi’s command, became the scene of another catastrophe on October 15, 2022. A fire and crackdown killed at least four prisoners and injured 61. Eyewitness reports and independent investigations suggested the use of live ammunition and suffocating gas by prison guards. Farzadi was widely held responsible for mismanagement, and possibly complicity, in the escalation of violence.
The consequences of Farzadi’s leadership extend beyond Iran’s borders. He has been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the European Union, and other international bodies for egregious human rights violations. These include torture, enforced disappearances, denial of medical treatment, and arbitrary detention. Evin Prison itself is listed as a sanctioned entity due to its long record of systematic abuse of political prisoners, many of whom have described solitary confinement, beatings, and psychological torment as standard procedure.
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In June 2025, Evin Prison was targeted by an Israeli airstrike that killed 71 people, including guards, conscripts, prisoners, visiting relatives, and nearby civilians. According to a Fox News report, Farzadi fled the facility minutes before the strike after receiving a warning through his son, allegedly contacted by Israeli intelligence. Iranian state media later contested the timeline, claiming Farzadi was inside the compound during a routine inspection when the attack occurred. The Tehran Times labeled the Fox News narrative a fabrication designed to distract from what they called a massacre.
Today, Farzadi’s whereabouts are unknown. Some believe he is in hiding; others suggest he remains protected by the regime’s internal security apparatus. What is certain is that his legacy—as a key enforcer of systemic torture and repression—reflects the broader machinery of the Iranian regime’s carceral violence. His career arc, marked by impunity and promotion despite repeated abuses, encapsulates the deep rot at the heart of the regime’s power structure.