Iran said the Israeli airstrike that killed Houthi Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi and several cabinet members in Sanaa would draw a response from its regional allies, calling the attack a war crime aimed at silencing Yemen’s support for Gaza.
The judiciary has accelerated death sentences since Israel struck the prison on June 23.
Human rights lawyers said the attack gave judges a pretext for vengeance.
“A spirit of vengeance has taken over the judiciary,” one Tehran lawyer, who asked not to be named, told the Times.
“A judge told me: ‘Our generals and officials have been killed, and we should take revenge.’ He didn’t even allow me to speak.”
Motahareh Gounei, a 28-year-old dental student arrested for criticizing the state, survived the bombing in Ward 209. “I thought, ‘This is it. I’m dead. I’ll be buried here,’” she said in a phone interview after being released on bail.
Rights groups say many of those now marked for execution were jailed for protest activity, not espionage, and their cases rest on confessions extracted under torture.
Asghar Jahangir, spokesperson for the Islamic Republic’s judiciary, announced on June 29 that in the Israeli attack on Evin Prison, 71 people were killed.
“The casualties included administrative staff, soldiers, inmates, family members who had come for visits or legal follow-ups, and neighbors living near the prison,” he said.
From ‘Evin University’ to collective punishment
Evin has long been notorious for torture yet also carried symbolic weight for the opposition. Political detainees staged hunger strikes, organized discussions and even confronted judges visiting the prison. It became known among activists as Evin University.
That fragile space was erased by the airstrike. The following day, authorities transferred 61 women to Qarchak, a facility notorious for disease and overcrowding.
“Since we were transferred to Qarchak, we’ve lost the right to work in workshops and to cover our living expenses. That means we can no longer buy groceries and are forced to eat the prison’s food, which is mostly plain rice,” one inmate said in a monitored call.
Gounei was later moved to an intelligence-run safe house. “Your name isn’t recorded anywhere,” she said. “My interrogator told me: ‘I’ll rape you and dump your body in the desert.’”
Rising executions
Iran Human Rights, an NGO, recorded 511 executions in the first five months of 2025, nearly double the same period last year. The judiciary has announced 700 arrests for alleged espionage during the war, vowing to show “no mercy.”
Male inmates from Evin have also faced brutality. About 500 transferred prisoners were returned in chains and beaten by riot police. Roughly 100 condemned prisoners were separated from the rest, including Mohammad-Bagher Bakhtiar, a 67-year-old former Revolutionary Guard commander turned dissident.
His son, Ali Reza, said: “Since the transfer to Evin, due to lack of access to medical staff, the full extent of the injuries to my father and other detainees is still unknown.”
Israel said its strikes on Evin aimed at guards and were designed to embolden the opposition. Officials accused Tehran of exploiting the attack to justify executions while presenting the war as a domestic victory.
Israel aimed to suppress Yemen’s support for Palestinians by targeting its leadership, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on Sunday.
“This crime will not weaken the Yemeni people,” the statement said. “It will fuel greater anger and broaden the front of resistance.”
“This savage crime will not weaken the determination of the Yemeni people,” the statement said. “It will ignite greater anger and expand the geography of resistance.”
The Guards described the attack as a “war crime against humanity” and said Israel carried it out “with full US support and the silence of international institutions.”
'Yemen has shaken Israel and the US'
Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said the assassination of al-Rahwi and his ministers was a sign of Israel’s failure to defeat Yemen militarily. “Yemenis have exhausted both the Zionist regime and its American patron,” he said in a message of condolence.
Ejei praised the Yemeni leadership’s support for Gaza and said that in the face of international silence, their resistance had changed the balance of power in the region.
Pezeshkian urges international response
President Masoud Pezeshkian also condemned the strike, calling it a terrorist act that highlighted “the criminal nature of the ruling clique in occupied Palestine.”
In a statement addressed to the people of Yemen and the broader Muslim world, Pezeshkian said, “The international community must act urgently to stop this regime’s lawlessness, which now poses the greatest threat to peace, justice, and humanity.”
Al-Rahwi was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sanaa earlier this week, alongside several ministers, while they were holding a cabinet meeting. Israeli officials said the operation targeted senior Houthi political and military figures in response to attacks on Israel, including the use of cluster munitions.
The Houthis have vowed to continue their campaign against Israel and have appointed a new acting prime minister.
The group has targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab, and Gulf of Aden since the Gaza war began, with some attacks reaching the Indian Ocean. The group has also launched missiles and drones at Israel, describing the strikes as support for Palestinians.
The US says it recently secured a halt to attacks on its vessels, but the Houthis say the pause does not apply to Israel and have pledged to continue those operations.
