Notorious Iranian prison is BLITZED as ‘Israel blows up gate to Evin jail in bid to free Ayatollah's fiercest critics'
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TEHRAN'S notorious Evin Prison has been blitzed by an Israeli airstrike, according to officials
A drone is thought to have blown up the jail's gates in an apparent effort free the regime's fiercest critics.
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Evin Prison is notorious for holing up political prisoners
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Footage shows a major explosion at its gates, and the IDF announced it had struck
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A dingy workshop inside the walls of Evin Prison
Credit: AP
The prison is notorious for shackling political prisoners, journalists and even Brits on bogus charges.
Isareli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly called for Iran's people to rise up against the regime.
Busting out its ardent critics could be an attempt fan the flames of rebellion, by returning anti-Ayatollah activists to the streets.
The IDF acknowledged the strike: "Following orders from PM Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz, the IDF is striking regime and security targets in central Tehran — including the Basij HQ, Evin Prison, the 'Israel destruction clock,' IRGC internal security HQs, and more."
Some political prisoners have been banged up in the hellhole for decades.
Reports on the horrific conditions have come from those who manage to make it out.
Marziyeh Amirizadeh, 43, spent 259 days in Evin, Iran's most notorious prison, where British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was also held.
Here, Marziyeh reveals the horror she endured – and how she rebuilt her life after her release as told to Kate Graham.
More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.
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I stumbled, narrowly avoiding a fall. My initial reaction was simply that I had been stabbed. Then, as a young woman barged by, I wondered if the large bag she was carrying had caught me. It appeared to have sharp metal edging around the corners. A careless accident then, souring what was an otherwise gorgeous summer's day in which I'd come down from my farm in North Yorkshire and planned to visit the Royal Academy of Art and perhaps dip inside the cool interior of London's most beautiful church, St James's. Only, what happened next proved me horribly wrong. The events of the next few seconds were so swift and practised that it was clear it was a coordinated assault. A casually dressed group of seven or eight men and women of East Asian origin who had been walking in front of me, dressed in expensive sportswear, had turned and hemmed me in. One grabbed the straps from a designer Tumi backpack I had slung over my left shoulder and attempted to wrench it off. Shock and instinct made me hold on to the bag with a tight grip, as another member of the group barged into me. I realised, with growing alarm, that I was being attacked from both sides at the same time. I was right by a busy bus stop, although no one would have known what was going on. It was slick, brief and clearly engineered to happen in the middle of a crowd. Then it was over, as quickly as it had begun. I'd held on to my bag, still over my shoulder, and the gang, laughing, walked briskly ahead in the direction of The Ritz hotel. Feeling battered, confused and a little humiliated, I sought the sanctuary of Fortnum & Mason, a few hundred yards ahead. There, I realised, to my horror, that my bag's zip had been pulled back, it was wide open, and my purse, which held all my cash and cards had gone. My driving licence had also been taken, which gave the thieves my address. My heart dropped. I felt sick. Furious, too – the victim of targeted and well-rehearsed attack. Had the jab to the back of my leg meant to floor or distract me? Either way, suddenly alone in the centre of a city I no longer recognised, I couldn't have felt more vulnerable. I resolved to find a police officer, but despite walking up and down some of London's busiest central areas – down Jermyn Street, along Piccadilly and over to Leicester Square – I saw none. West End Central police station, which would have been a ten-minute walk away, had closed permanently in 2021 after being sold to developers for a reported £50 million. No wonder opportunistic crimes like these are on the rise when bobbies have all but abandoned their beats. Giving up, I headed home, walking the three miles to my flat in Kensington because I had no cards with which to pay for a bus or taxi. Dazed and shattered, and with the pain in my leg only growing, I took a breather in Hyde Park to register the crime on my phone using the Met's online form. The next day I received a call to say that officers from Hammersmith police station would come to take a statement from me at 8am the following morning. But at the time they were due to arrive, they rang to say they couldn't come because they couldn't find an available police car. Really? The station is barely a half-hour walk away. Disappointed, I had to make do with discussing it over the phone with the officer instead. Such muggings were, he said, 'rife' in the capital at the moment. He asked if I wanted to take it any further and, honestly, I didn't. The pointlessness of reporting a crime so long after the event is infuriating – it's a tick-box exercise, nothing more. The chances of the police catching a gang with my vague description of their clothes and ethnicity must be almost nil. Ultimately, pursuing a report would mean me enduring a bureaucratic hurdle – filling in more forms online, having more phone calls. And for what? All of this could have been avoided if there were more police on our streets, which would serve as a deterrent to these thugs. It's futile having a police force at all in London if they can't adequately react to something like this. No wonder that gang had such a sense of impunity – they can do anything they want because they know no one will stop them. I've since learned that the CCTV outside Waterstones hasn't been operating for a year because of works on the building, so there will be no record of my assault. Did the gang know that? Thinking back, I wonder if I was targeted after one of the gang watched me pay for the books I'd bought in Waterstones. When I returned to Yorkshire on Friday morning, I passed through King's Cross station and there were big notices and announcements on a regular basis saying, 'Please take care, thieves are operating', and assuring travellers they were working closely with the police. What police? Where? It was galling. The truth is that London is not the city I used to know. Crimes like mine have rocketed more than 23 per cent in a year. It reminds me of lawless New York in the 1990s when I worked for CBS television. Times Square was so crime-ridden it was a no-go area. Yet the first priority of the Mayor of London should be to protect the public from lawlessness and keep police stations open in crime hotspots. Sir Sadiq Khan has instead overseen their wholesale closure. He would do well to learn from Michael Bloomberg who, when he became New York's mayor in 2002, said there would be zero tolerance of violence and robberies on the street. He launched a public safety initiative and dramatically increased 'stop and frisk' searches. The city became a place where you felt safe once more. Thankfully, although I'm licking my wounds from the attack, I am strong and fit from working every day on the fields and woodlands at my home. What chance do the frail and the weak have in London when confronted by the same thing? Certainly I'd advise anyone not to carry anything that might make them a target; be it a bag, a watch or jewellery. I will have, for some time, a visible reminder of the day I was mugged in London. What weapon my attackers had used to cause the bruise behind my knee, I don't know but at least it wasn't a knife. My bruise will pass but the mental scar will linger. Unless crimes like these are tackled, however, others may not be so fortunate.
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