Iranian writer Hamid Asefi wasn’t home on the afternoon of 5 March when armed intelligence agents stormed his Tehran apartment, breaking down the door with a sledgehammer and axe. After going unit to unit looking for him, they finally encountered him as he returned to the building.
One of the agents “drew his handgun, shouted at me to stop, and before I had time to respond, struck me forcefully on the back of the neck and spine with the butt of his weapon, dragging me into the apartment,” Asefi told the Guardian in a written interview.
When he requested an arrest warrant, the beating intensified. “Heavy blows were directed at my ribs, kidneys, temples and the back of my head. The beating was so severe that I lost consciousness once. When I regained consciousness, the assault continued,” he says.
The assault on the 63-year-old continued after he was brought blindfolded to a detention centre, where an interrogator accused him of signing a statement condemning the regime’s January crackdown on protesters and being in contact with the Israeli government.
Insisting he had not signed any such statement, he was eventually released and told his arrest was an administrative error. But the effects of the assault did not end there: three weeks later, Asefi was rushed to hospital, where an MRI revealed extensive bleeding on his brain.
“Death was no longer a distant possibility; I could feel its shadow completely across my face,” he says.
Asefi underwent surgery and is in recovery, but his case is among a growing number emerging from Iran as the internet restrictions imposed by the regime begin to ease. As well as those arrested for involvement in the January protests, a number of political prisoners and journalists have been swept up in a wider crackdown since the war broke out. Interviews with detainees, relatives and rights groups reveal a fuller picture of the scale of abuse inside the country’s prison system, including allegations of torture, beatings, starvation and deaths in custody.
Amnesty International reports it has documented torture and other ill-treatment against detainees since 28 February, including mock executions through staged hangings and guns forced into prisoners’ mouths, severe beatings, suspension by the hands and feet, prolonged solitary confinement, and the denial of food and medical care.
Among those subjected to starvation in custody is Mehnaz*, a 23-year-old protester who witnessed protesters being shot with machine guns during a protest in the Haft Hoz neighbourhood on 8 January.
“I can’t ever forget that scene. Blood streamed down the street as we ran towards safety,” she says. Although Mehnaz was not arrested during the protests, she was detained days ahead of the first attack by the US and Israel on 28 February.
“They barged in, handcuffed me and took me to the Qarchak prison … They told me they arrested me over social media posts which were anti-regime,” she says.
For more than two weeks, the young IT professional says she was subjected to relentless interrogations and denied food and water.
“I lost 8 kilos in just two weeks. Some tortures don’t leave bruises, but they stay with you for ever,” says Mehnaz.
More than 80 women were imprisoned along with Mehnaz in her ward, which was so overcrowded that they had to sleep on the floor.
The bathrooms were so unsanitary she asked family members to bring adult diapers. Qarchak prison is known for its poor conditions: the US-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) reported in October 2025 that at least three female prisoners died in a week due to being denied medical care.
Mehnaz believes the only reason she was released is that authorities wanted to make space for thousands more arrested in the aftermath of the war.
Others did not get out of the system alive. For several weeks, the family of Hesam Alaeddin, a father of two, did not know whether he was dead or alive.
After his arrest in April in Tehran, during a search for Starlink devices, the 40-year-old disappeared into the prison system, a source close to Alaeddin with direct knowledge of the arrest says.
“They raided his mother’s house and his brother’s house. They beat up his brother too and arrested them,” the source says. “When they took Hesam away, they beat him severely in front of his daughters, aged 10 and 11.”
For weeks, the family searched desperately for information. “Every time they went to the prison, they were told he had been moved to another location. It has been relentless torture for the family.”
The call to collect his body finally came weeks later. Relatives later alleged that when Alaeddin’s body was returned, there was “not a single bone left intact”.
“They beat him to death,” the source says, breaking down in tears. “Hesam was a loving father, husband, brother and son. His wife is terrified, and his daughters cannot understand why he is not coming home.”
Those interviewed by the Guardian about their time in detention have spoken of how violently they were treated when being arrested by masked agents. Mojgan, a Tehran-based rights activist, had taken part in a protest in January. Weeks later, five masked agents barged into her house, beat her over the head with the gun and took her blindfolded to a detention centre, she says.
“They broke my toe and they just wanted to terrorise and frighten us,” says Mojgan.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Vida Rabbani, an Iranian journalist was arrested on 31 January for signing a statement condemning the crackdown on protests and calling for the end to the authoritarian regime. She was taken to Sari intelligence detention centre, where she was severely beaten, her lawyer wrote in a public statement. Her husband, Hamidreza Amiri, said in social media posts after visiting her in prison. “There were extensive bruises all over her body; she had been severely beaten. Because she had refused to comply with compulsory hijab, her hair had been pulled out.” he wrote.
Rabbani says she was repeatedly assaulted in detention. “They kept calling me a savage and violently tried to force me to wear a hijab,” she says.
At one point, her male interrogator grabbed her hair and yanked it. “I didn’t realise then but later on the prison floor, when I touched my hair, clumps fell out in my palm. I collected those and made this hair bracelet out of it,” she says.
She says the man sexually assaulted her. “He punched me and then put his feet between my legs. On my vagina. He tried to strangle me. I bit his hand. I could feel his bones in my teeth. He then left the cell.”
Rabbani was released, but says since the episode she has panic attacks and insomnia.
Like many others interviewed, Rabbani says the agents have ways to inflict pain that do not leave physical marks.
“They have a way to torture you without leaving a visible trace. But now I can’t sleep and have to take antidepressants and sleeping pills.”
