Skip to main content

Iran | ‘Ebrat’ Ward, Medieval Torture Chamber in Adelabad Prison of Shiraz

The basement of the Central Prison of Shiraz, also known as Adelabad Prison, is where Iran’s wrestling champion Navid Afkari spent his final days before being executed on September 12, 2020.

The notorious basement of Adelabad Prison is also called “Ebrat” which literally means “a lesson.”

IRGC Intelligence runs Ebrat


Ebrat is run by the IRGC Intelligence Division and is where they torture detained protesters arrested during various uprisings, particularly in November 2019.

All the protesters who had been injured during the November 2019 protests were snatched out of hospitals and transferred to Ebrat, in the basement of the Central Prison of Shiraz.

It has been also reported that protesters arrested in various cities including Tehran, Isfahan, Behbahan, Sanandaj, Karaj and even in cities of the northern province of Gilan have been banished to the basement of Adelabad Prison, i.e. Ebrat.

The IRGC is cautious so that the names of and information about the prisoners in Ebrat prison are not leaked out and do not reach the international organizations.

All of the guards working in Ebrat basement are tasked to harass and harm the detainees.

They call each other by titles such as “left-handed Jalal,” “Godless Majid,” and “shameless Hussein.”

One of these guards has written on the entrance to Ebrat basement: “There is no God here!”

Blindfolded detainees tortured to death


Prisoners are tortured blindfolded in the Ebrat basement.

Some prisoners’ nails are pulled out to force them to make false confessions.

Some prisoners are suspended from the ceiling and beaten with a cable on their hands, feet, and fingers. In many cases, the prisoners’ fingers break.

Another torture is to strip a prisoner naked and place him in the scorching sun or in the extreme cold.

Three detainees of the November 2019 protests died in this prison under torture.

Lack of basic standards


Some 350 to 400 protesters are detained in 100 filthy cells in this basement. 

The cells are 20 square meters and each prisoner has 1 square meter of space at most. Each cell has a hole which is used as the toilet.

There is no access to bath or shower. Prisoners can have a cold shower in the prison’s yard only for one minute, during which they are hit by the water hose by prison guards.  

Prisoners do not have the right to talk to each other and will be punished if a word is exchanged between them. Cutting food ration for a week is an example of the type of punishment.

Prisoners are deprived of using the telephone to communicate with the outside world.

Prisoners are monitored by CCTV round the clock.


There is no medical care in Ebrat prison. 

Many of the detainees were left unattended after the brutal crackdown in November 2019. 

Some detainees who had been injured under torture, their wounds were infected.

Call to save detained protesters


The Iran Human Rights Monitor calls on the UN human rights bodies and all international human rights organizations to form an international delegation to visit prisons and detention centers in Iran. 

They should particularly demand to meet with the detained protesters and take effective measures to secure their release.

Source: iran-hrm.com, Staff, September 22, 2020


⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.


Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!



"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Most viewed (Last 7 days)

China executes 11 members of gang who ran billion-dollar criminal empire in Myanmar

China has executed 11 members of the notorious Ming family criminal gang, who ran mafia-like scam centers in Myanmar and killed workers who tried to escape, Chinese state media reported on Thursday.  The Ming family was one of the so-called 4 families of northern Myanmar — crime syndicates accused of running hundreds of compounds dealing in internet fraud, prostitution and drug production, and whose members held prominent positions in the local government and militia aligned with Myanmar’s ruling junta. 

Georgia parole board suspends scheduled execution of Cobb County death row prisoner

The execution of a Georgia man scheduled for Wednesday has been suspended as the State Board of Pardons and Paroles considers a clemency application.  Stacey Humphreys, 52, would have been the state's first execution in 2025. As of December 16, 2025, Georgia has carried out zero executions in 2025. The state last executed an inmate in January 2020, followed by a pause due to COVID-19. Executions resumed in 2024, but none have occurred this year until now. Humphreys had been sentenced to death for the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, who were fatally shot at the real estate office where they worked.

China executes another four members of powerful Myanmar-based crime family

China has executed another four members of a powerful Myanmar-based crime family that oversaw 41 pig butchering scam* compounds across Southeast Asia.   The executed individuals were members of the Bai family, a particularly powerful gang that ruled the Laukkai district and helped transform it into a hub for casinos, trafficking, scam compounds, and prostitution.  China’s Supreme People’s Court approved the executions after 21 members were charged with homicide, kidnapping, extortion, operating a fraudulent casino, organizing illegal border crossings, and forced prostitution. The court said the Bai family made over $4 billion across its enterprise and killed six Chinese citizens.

Federal Judge Rules Out Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealth CEO Killing

NEW YORK — A federal judge has dismissed two charges against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, effectively removing the possibility of the death penalty in the high-profile case.  U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett ruled Friday that the murder charge through use of a firearm — the only count that could have carried a capital sentence — was legally incompatible with the remaining interstate stalking charges against Mangione.

Florida | Man convicted of leaving girl to be eaten by gators avoids death penalty

After about 4 hours of deliberations, jurors on Friday recommended Harrel Braddy should be sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of 5-year-old Quantisha Maycock.  A South Florida man who dropped off a 5-year-old child in the Everglades to be eaten alive by gators nearly 3 decades ago was given a second chance at life as jurors recommended he should spend the rest of his life behind bars instead of being sent to death row. After about four hours of deliberations, jurors on Friday recommended Harrel Braddy should be sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of 5-year-old Quantisha Maycock. 

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester.  Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

California | Convicted killer Scott Peterson keeps swinging in court — but expert says he’s not going anywhere but his cell

More than two decades after Laci Peterson vanished from her Modesto, California, home, the murder case that captivated the nation continues to draw legal challenges, public debate and renewed attention. As the year comes to a close, Scott Peterson, convicted in 2004 of murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son Conner, remains behind bars, serving life without the possibility of parole. His wife disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002, and a few months later, the remains of Laci and Conner were found in the San Francisco Bay.

Florida's second execution of 2026 scheduled for February

Florida’s second execution of 2026, a man convicted of killing a grocery story owner, will take place in February. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant Jan. 23 for Melvin Trotter, 65, to die by lethal injection Feb. 24.  Florida's first execution will take place just a few weeks earlier when Ronald Palmer Heath is set to die Feb. 10. Trotter was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1987 for strangling and stabbing Virgie Langford a year earlier in Palmetto. 

The US reporter who has witnessed 14 executions: ‘People need to know what it looks like’

South Carolina-based journalist Jeffrey Collins observed back-to-back executions in 2025 after the state revived the death penalty following a 13-year pause Jeffrey Collins has watched 14 men draw their final breaths. Over 25 years at the Associated Press, the South Carolina-based journalist has repeatedly served as an observer inside the state’s execution chamber, watching from feet away as prison officials kill men who were sentenced to capital punishment. South Carolina has recently kept him unusually busy, with seven back-to-back executions in 14 months.

Somalia executes woman convicted of abusing, killing 14-year-old domestic worker

Mogadishu (HOL) — Puntland authorities on Tuesday executed a woman convicted of murdering a 14-year-old girl after the victim’s family chose retributive justice under Islamic law, marking a rare application of the death penalty against a woman in the semi-autonomous region. The execution was carried out in Galkacyo, a divided city in central Somalia, after courts found Hodan Mohamud guilty of killing Sabirin Saylaan Abdille, a minor who had been working as a domestic helper.  Officials said the sentence was imposed under qisas , an Islamic legal principle that allows the family of a murder victim to demand the execution of the perpetrator instead of accepting financial compensation.