In a letter released on Tuesday, the Iranian Judiciary chief ordered Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri to follow up “without delay” on the case of “guards or inmates mistreating inmates” and provide him with a report on the results of the probe.
The videos - which recently circulated on social media outlets - appear to be captured by the prison’s surveillance cameras and show a number of guards beating prisoners and dragging a detainee on the floor.
Meanwhile, the head of the Iranian Prisons’ Organization has apologized over “bitter” incidents at the Evin Prison, saying, “Regarding the pictures from Evin Prison, I accept responsibility for such unacceptable behavior and pledge to try to prevent any repeat of these bitter events and to deal seriously with the wrongdoers.”
In his Twitter post on Tuesday, Mohammad Mahdi Haj Mohammadi has also insisted that such apparent abuse of position should not be used to judge the performance of the rest of the countries’ prison wardens.
“I apologize to God Almighty, our dear Leader (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei), the nation and honorable prison guards, whose efforts will not be ignored due to these mistakes,” he said, Press TV reported.
Observers have been speculating about the circumstances surrounding the release of the video, and foreign anti-revolutionary media agencies’ quick move to seize on the chance to attack Iran as usual.