Evin Prison

The State Department confirmed yesterday (Sunday) to Agence France-Presse that it is gathering information on the case of an American-Iranian journalist allegedly being held at Iran.

Iranian authorities released star actor Taraneh Alidoosti on bail on Jan. 4 after holding her for almost three weeks over her support for the protest movement, her lawyer said.

Eight inmates died in a fire that raged in Iran's Evin prison, the judiciary said Monday, doubling the official toll from a blaze that has further stoked tensions one month into protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

Iran's judiciary raised the death toll Monday in a blaze at Tehran's notorious Evin prison, saying that at least eight prisoners were killed as protests continue nationwide.

Details still remain scarce over the fire at Evin prison, which broke out on Saturday night as nationwide anti-government protests triggered by the death of a young woman in police custody entered a fifth week.

At least four people died and 61 were injured in the fire at Tehran's Evin prison on Saturday, state news agency IRNA reported.

A court in Tehran has sentenced an Iranian artist to 12 years and nine months in prison for criticising the government and "spreading propaganda against the system," The Art Newspaper reported on June 3.

Atena Farghadani was arrested in August last year for drawing a cartoon that mocked members of parliament; her trial began on May 19. 

The trial of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian on charges of spying on Iran opened behind closed doors in Tehran on May 26, state media reported.

Award-winning Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested on Dec. 10 on unknown charges, her husband said, weeks after she was barred from practising for three years.
      
The couple's car was surrounded by intelligence agents on a highway in Tehran, Reza Khandan wrote on his Facebook page.
      

Zhivko Rusev, a Bulgarian national sentenced to life imprisonment in Iran for drug trafficking, has been returned to Bulgaria.

Zhivko Stefanov Rusev, who had been serving a life imprisonment sentence in the Evin Prison in Teheran, was transferred from Iran to Bulgaria on the night of August 26, according to reports of Sega daily.