In July, prison guards in Evin raided the cells of Christians being held there, damaging facilities and stealing personal belongings.
Early in the morning of July 18, 150 prison guards in Evin prison raided ward 350, pulled prisoners from their cells, physically inspected them and began searching.
During their searching operation, the guards broke and stole prisoners' belongings. Ward 350 holds mainly political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. The cells of Christian prisoners were raided as well. Christian prisoners held in that ward include Farshid Fathi, Mostafa Bordbar, Alireza Seyyedian and the American-Iranian pastor, Saeed Abedini.
Scanners
In addition to their personal belongings, prison guards damaged facilities in their cells, including cooling systems, electric wires, etc. The guards used handheld scanners and physically inspected prisoners' bodies in a disrespectful fashion.
This sort of humiliating and aggressive attack is unheard of.
It is worth mentioning that Christian prisoners in ward 350 of Evin prison are imprisoned merely for their Christian faith and nothing else.
Farshid Fathi and Alireza Seyyedian were sentenced to six years in prison and Pastor Saeed Abedini was sentenced to eight. All three are serving their sentences.
The other Christian prisoner, Mostafa Bordbar, was sentenced to ten years on July 31 (see World in Brief ), having already been held in prison for eight months.
