The number of detainees murdered in a fire that broke out during rioting inside Tehran's Evin prison was doubled by Iran's judiciary administration on Monday.
Following four weeks of demonstrations over the murder of 22-year-old Masha Amini, who was detained for allegedly breaking Iran's stringent dress code for women, the fire on Saturday night, which Iran claimed to have started during "riots and fights," happened after the rallies.
In the Islamic Republic, the wave of protests has grown into a significant anti-government movement, posing the religious leadership with one of its most important challenges since the overthrow of the shah in 1979.
According to the judiciary's Mizan Online website, "the overall number of casualties of the fire and the conflict between convicts has reached eight" after four Evin prison inmates injured in the fire died in hospitals.
In video footage shared on social media platforms, gunshots and explosions can be heard during the fire from within the complex, lit up by flames and obscured by smoke.
Families of prisoners and civil rights organizations have expressed significant concerns about other detainees and said that officials deployed tear gas at the institution.
In addition to holding international detainees and thousands of others facing criminal accusations, Evin is notorious for mistreating political prisoners.
Hundreds of people who were detained during recent protests and in a crackdown on civic society were sent there