Detainees in Iran are being forcibly injected with unknown substances inside detention facilities, according to eyewitness testimonies, informed sources and human rights monitors who warn of a growing pattern of deaths among current and former prisoners.
Shiva Mahbobi, a former political prisoner and a spokesperson for the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran, said her organization has been collecting accounts suggesting that detainees—particularly those wounded during recent protests—are being denied medical care and, in some cases, subjected to injections of unknown substances.
“One massacre happened on the street,” Mahbobi said in an interview with Iran International. “Another may be happening quietly in prisons and detention centers.”
Iranian authorities tightly restrict access to detention facilities, families are often warned against speaking publicly, and there is no mechanism for independent medical or forensic investigation.
Still, Mahbobi and other activists say the reports they are receiving show a troubling pattern rather than isolated incidents.
According to Mahbobi, injured protesters are frequently taken directly into custody rather than to hospitals, where some are left without treatment.
In several cases reported to her organization, detainees were allegedly injected during detention and later experienced rapid medical deterioration.
'Teenage girl in a coma'
In one recent case described by an informed source, a 16-year-old girl detained last week fell into a coma after what the source said was an injection administered in custody.
Medical tests later indicated signs of poisoning, though doctors have not determined the cause.
The teenager, who was released only after her family paid heavy bail, was transferred to intensive care and remains hospitalized, the source said.
Mahbobi also cited a case in Isfahan in which a young woman was detained, released on bail, and died the following day.
In another reported incident, in Shahinshahr, near Isfahan, Mahbobi said the family of a detained man was told he would be released only after posting bail and receiving what officials described as a “vaccine.”
According to Mahbobi, the man resisted the injection, was beaten, and later found it difficult to obtain medical care after his release, as doctors feared repercussions.
'Voices calling for help in morgue'
Eyewitness accounts received by Iran International describe similarly disturbing scenes beyond detention centers.
One witness said voices calling for help could be heard inside a morgue as bodies were being processed, alleging that they were resisting injections.
Mahbobi said documenting abuses inside prisons remains particularly difficult.
“What people don’t see on television is the most frightening part,” she said. “There is no footage from inside prisons.”
The allegations echo reports from the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests, when several detainees died shortly after their release following unexplained medical treatment in custody.
In some cases, families and rights groups raised concerns about injections or drug administration, but no independent investigations were carried out.
At the time, medical experts warned that the forced use of sedatives or psychiatric drugs in detention—and their abrupt withdrawal—could cause severe complications, including cardiac failure.
'Lethal injections in jails'
The exact substances allegedly being used in current cases remain unknown.“We don’t know what they are injecting,” Mahbobi said.
“What we know is that people are being injected in custody, and some of them are dying.”
Mahbobi also said her organization has received reports of injured protesters taken away by ambulance who later returned to their families as bodies, as well as accounts from Kermanshah of residents being summoned to identify corpses which locals believed belonged to detainees.
She warned that executions may increasingly be carried out away from public view. “The executions won’t look like before,” she said. "They will be hidden.”
Iranian officials have not commented on the allegations.
Mahbobi called on the international community to pressure Iranian authorities to disclose the identities and locations of detainees and allow independent monitoring of detention facilities.
“Our fear,” she said, “is that if this continues in silence, many people will never come out alive.”
