Iranian State TV Fakes Footage of Evin Raid

Iranian state television broadcast a documentary on Monday purporting to investigate the recent raid on Cell Block 350 at Evin Prison, in which numerous inmates were seriously injured, according to detainee accounts. The documentary alleged that no harm was inflicted during the raid and that if something did go amiss the inmates themselves were at fault. 

Prepared by Bashgah-e Khabnegaran Javan under the oversight of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the state’s media and propaganda arm, the broadcast suggests that the raid has shaken the highest echelons of Iran’s political establishment. 

Relatives of prisoners who sustained injuries in the raid challenged the veracity of the report, which included no interviews with the inmates themselves and included only highly selective scenes of the turmoil. 

Though produced to shield the state from international and domestic embarrassment, the documentary is riddled with gaffes. One is that it included footage of Cell Block 350 from a two-part documentary, “Behind Bars in Iran,” which aired in March of last year on Press TV, the state’s English network.

That 50-minute documentary focused on Evin and Ghezelhessar prisons, both in Tehran, and painted a favorable picture of Iranian prisons and the conditions in which detainees are kept. The prominent figure in the documentary was Sohrab Soleimani, the director-general of Tehran Prison Bureau, who rhapsodized about prison conditions.

In the first part of Press TV’s documentary, pictures of Evin Prison run from the second to the fourth minute, and these images have found their way into at least two new documentaries.

After Monday’s documentary aired, a number of political activists who have served time at Evin called the footage fabricated. The once prominent reformist figure Mohammad-Reza Jalaeipour wrote on his Facebook page that “the long shots were not from Cell Block 350, as friends who have been there can testify. It has neither curtains nor ceiling fans.”

Despite being produced in haste with stock footage and being dismissed by prominent public figures, the presenter at state television called the program “a first-rate documentary.”