Political prisoners in Iran are in grave and immediate danger as security forces secretly move them to undisclosed locations and essential supplies are cut during the war with Israel and the US, detainees' relatives and human rights organisations have warned.
“From a food standpoint, from a security standpoint, they've got nothing … especially political prisoners – their lives are in mortal danger,” Amir, whose sister is detained in southern Iran, told The National. He fled Iran and lives abroad, but used a pseudonym to protect his family still in the country.
The war could accelerate executions, and prisoners moved to facilities linked to Iran’s intelligence, security and military forces are at greater risk from US and Israeli air strikes, say human rights groups.
A state of conflict “gives the regime an opportunity to do whatever it wants inside the country with much lower political cost, because the war overshadows everything”, said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organisation.
He cited the executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 following the ceasefire announcement ending the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, and a spike in executions in 2025. Last year, international attention was focused on other issues such as the US-Iran nuclear negotiations and the 12-day war with Israel in the summer.
“This is a very, very serious risk, and that's why I think the international community must put it back into focus,” Mr Amiry-Moghaddam told The National. Iran Human Rights has documented 141 executions so far this year.
Iran Human Rights organisation
The current war has brought further misery and fear for inmates already enduring abysmal prison conditions, including torture, overcrowding and poor sanitation, according to human rights organisations based outside Iran.
An air strike on March 1 at the Tehran Central Prison, one of Iran’s largest jails, destroyed the food store, leaving inmates deprived of basic supplies, according to testimony and information received by Dadban, a group of pro bono lawyers, and the UK-based Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran.
“One of the missiles hit the food storage,” Shiva Mahbobi, spokeswoman for the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran, told The National. Medication supplies that "many of these prisoners need” were also affected.
“The water is cut off, there is no food ration, the health situation is a disaster,” read a message from the family of one prisoner received by Dadban.
Observers have documented similar shortages at Qarchak Prison for women in Tehran province. Human Rights Watch last year described it as “notorious” for its “abysmal conditions”.
“Either they [prisoners] are kept to starve or die from their medical conditions or they've been transferred” to unknown locations, Ms Mahbobi added.
An Iranian judiciary spokesman on Tuesday denied reports of poor conditions in prisons. “Rumours about the condition of prisons are not true, our prisons meet the necessary standards,” the spokesman told state media.
Due to a widespread internet shutdown by Iranian authorities since the war started on February 28, and a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in January, many families have struggled to contact imprisoned relatives. In more normal times, some prisoners would be allowed to contact their families using prison phones, or to receive visits.
“I feel a deep sense of longing because we are separated, and because the internet is cut off, I’m really worried,” said Amir. His sister was arrested in August 2024 on allegations that she helped Amir, who had been arrested and released, to flee the country. “I want to know whether my family and my loved ones are alive and well, how they are,” he said in a phone call with The National.
Ms Mahbobi was held as a prisoner during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. At that time, she saw three cellmates die when the prison in Saqqez, near the border with Iraq, was attacked. In another prison, guards would take shelter and leave the detainees, she recalled.
“The only thing I could do was to go into the corner of the small cell, and I would hold my head. The wall was shaking, but no one could hear you,” she said. “So when I'm talking about people being left behind closed doors with no protection, this is what's happening.”
There are no accurate estimates of how many people are being held in Iran on political charges or because of activity that the state deems threatening, such as exercising freedom of speech or protest. Human rights campaigners put the number in the tens of thousands.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran
Security forces related to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s most powerful military force, have moved inmates from at least three prisons to unknown locations since the war began, said Ms Mahbobi.
An unknown number of prisoners have been moved out of the high-security Ward 209 in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, often used to house dual nationals and foreigners, as have inmates from a prison in Mahabad, in western Iran. Prisoners from Dastgerd jail in Isfahan were “put on buses and were taken to an unknown location”, Ms Mahbobi said.
“We have to remember none of this is explained to the prisoners or their families, so families don't know where they are,” she said.
Evin prison, badly damaged during the 12-day war with Israel last June, sustained some damage on March 3 when Israel targeted the nearby state broadcaster's building. Since the latest war began, prison staff have been replaced by members of the security and military forces, human rights organisations report.
The logic behind moving prisoners is not entirely clear, said Mr Amiry-Moghaddam.
“I'm not in their [security forces’] heads, and I am glad that I'm not,” he said. Among the possible reasons for moving detainees is to better control prison populations to prevent them from organising against the regime, he said.
Prisoners transferred to informal or unknown detention centres may be hit by US or Israeli air strikes because those locations are connected to Iran’s military and security apparatus, observers fear.
“Some prisoners have been transferred to unidentified locations or areas near potential military objectives, intensifying concerns for their safety,” Amnesty International said on Friday.
Being held in well-known jails provides prisoners with some level of protection against aerial attack, Mr Amiry-Moghaddam said.
“As long as they are in big prisons, such as Evin, at least everybody knows they are there, so these facilities might not be attacked. But when they are moved to undisclosed locations, to buildings that are part of the security institutions, which are targets in the war, that puts their lives in danger.”
Observers say many police stations and IRGC facilities were already being used to hold people detained during the anti-government protests in January, when tens of thousands were reportedly arrested.
“All the IRGC places have a detention centre or secret houses. Lots of these new detainees are there,” Ms Mahbobi said. “So with all these explosions, sadly, I think many of them have been killed, but we don't know.”
The Israeli military has repeatedly claimed attacks on Iran’s “military infrastructure” and the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary force often used to put down civil unrest. The US has confirmed strikes on “command and control centres”, without naming specific locations.
Foreigners and dual nationals being held in Iran are also at increased risk due to the war. On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had raised the case of two citizens in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian. Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris were held in Evin prison between May 2022 and November 2025, and are now confined to the French embassy in Tehran.
“I told him [Mr Pezeshkian] that the safety and return to France of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who are currently inside the French embassy, remain an absolute priority for us,” Mr Macron wrote in a statement on X.
Iranian authorities last month sentenced two British citizens, Lindsay and Craig Foreman, to 10 years in prison over charges of espionage, which they deny. They were being held in Evin prison when the war began.
Iran’s laws state that the judiciary must take extra measures to safeguard prisoners during war, including by granting conditional release. But this has not happened in the current conflict, observers say.
“We have heard that in some prisons, some of the ordinary prisoners with lighter sentences and non-political charges have been furloughed or released,” Mr Amiry-Moghaddam said. “None of the human rights defenders or political prisoners have been released.”
Campaigners are calling on western governments to pressure Iran to release political prisoners and to disclose the locations of those moved during the conflict. “They need to see consequences for what they are doing,” Ms Mahbobi said. “They can't just sacrifice these prisoners.”
For now, Amir waits, worried about the fate of his country and prisoners such as his sister. “Let me tell you, everyone with a political case, for example, my sister, their lives are in danger,” he said. “They [the authorities] can easily do whatever you can imagine to them.”
