‘A new wave of repression’: fears for Iran’s political prisoners after Israel war

Families report horrific' conditions in jails and fear executions may be hastened as part of broader crackdown

Life for Reza Khandan has only got worse since Tehran's Evin prison, where he was an inmate, was hit by an Israeli airstrike on 23 June. The next night, the 60-year-old human rights activist - who was arrested in 2024 for his support of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement - was moved to another jail in the south of the capital, where he has told family conditions are hard to endure.

My father and others do not have beds and are forced to sleep on the floor. He once found six or seven bedbugs in his blanket when he woke up," said his daughter Mehraveh Khandan, who described horrific" sanitary conditions in the prison.