A devastating toll: the human cost of Israel’s strike on Tehran's Evin Prison

The legislation classifies any collaboration with Israel and the United States as “corruption on earth”, which is punishable by death.

“Any intelligence, espionage, or operational activity for Israel, the US, or other hostile regimes and groups or their agents against the country’s security or national interests is considered corruption on earth and punishable by death,” the law says.

It further criminalizes “any security, military, economic, financial, technological action or any direct or indirect assistance knowingly done to approve, strengthen, consolidate, or legitimize Israel,” also punishable by death.

The third article specifies that manufacturing, transferring, or importing drones with military or sabotage uses against critical infrastructure qualifies for the death penalty. It also includes cyberattacks, disruption of communication networks, and sabotage of public or private facilities.

The law penalizes receiving funds from intelligence agents knowingly, regardless of active involvement.

Political, cultural, media, or propaganda activities causing public fear, division, or damage to national security carry 10 to 15 years imprisonment.

Sharing content with "hostile foreign networks" that weakens morale or creates division results in two to five years in prison.

Illegal wartime protests carry five to ten years imprisonment.

The use or import of unauthorized internet communication tools like Starlink is punishable by six months to two years in prison, according to the law.

Importing more than ten Starlink devices “with intent to oppose the Islamic Republic” results in five to ten years’ imprisonment.

The law applies retroactively to offenses committed before its enactment, violating Iran’s constitution and penal code provisions prohibiting retroactive laws, according to experts.

“The capacities they have are there. They could have, in a matter of months—or even less—a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium,” Grossi told CBS News' Face the Nation on Sunday.

“Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared. There is still something there.”

Asked about the extent of damage from US military actions on nuclear sites, Grossi said it depends on how one defines damage.

“What happened—particularly in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, where Iran used to have, and still retains to some extent, capabilities for uranium treatment, conversion, and enrichment—has been significantly destroyed,” he said.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday there are “signs” that an agreement can be reached with Iran.

“We’re having conversations with the Iranians. There are multiple interlocutors reaching out to us. I think that they’re ready,” he told CNBC.

In his interview with CBS, Grossi clarified that the IAEA is not involved in those negotiations. “Our role is to monitor and verify. We’re not part of the direct talks,” he explained.

On whether Iran’s nuclear activity before the US and Israeli strikes indicated weaponization, Grossi said: “We haven’t seen a program aiming in that direction. But they are not answering very important, pending questions. That’s the truth.”

Last week, Iran’s parliament passed a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA. The Guardian Council approved it shortly afterward.

Grossi said that Iran remains a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which overrides domestic law.

“An international treaty takes precedence. You cannot cite internal legislation to avoid your international obligations. Iran has not done so yet, which I see as constructive,” Grossi added.

“This is a ceasefire agreement. This is not arms control. This is a ceasefire agreement, and the war can start at any moment,” said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, DC.

“There were reports yesterday in the media or on X that Iran was digging back into the Isfahan mountain complex where enriched uranium may be stored. It is inviting attacks.”

Following the Israeli and US airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, around 400 kilograms—more than 900 pounds—of uranium enriched to 60% purity is unaccounted for, and their whereabouts is not known.

Albright warned that Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpiles remain “very dangerous if there’s some remaining numbers of gas centrifuges that can be activated.”

"While the centrifuge program of Iran has essentially been destroyed, there are these remaining stocks of enriched uranium and there's 60% enriched, there's 20% enriched, and there's 5% enriched," he said.

"And Iran had the time and the motivation to move portions of these stocks, but it's really hotly debated on the outside where they are."

US President Donald Trump in an interview with Fox News ruled out the possibility that the stockpiles had been moved.

“They didn't move anything. You know, they moved themselves. They were all trying to live,” Trump said, adding that moving those uranium stockpiles would have been “very heavy, very, very heavy” and “very dangerous to do.”

Albright referred to the ongoing uncertainty about the amount and whereabouts of Iran’s enriched uranium: “It’s really hotly debated on the outside where they are. Some argue many of them are in Fordow where Iran thought Fordow was invincible… Others think maybe there’s some in the mountain complex near the Isfahan nuclear site.”

“It would be very risky for Iran to move forward with these things in the present climate,” he warned, adding that if Iran did restart enrichment using its existing stocks, “you’re talking weeks and months to get enough for several nuclear weapons.”

Nuclear weapon still an option for Iran

Albright said Iran’s centrifuge program and nuclear weapons infrastructure have been destroyed in Israeli and American airstrikes, but in the long term, Tehran “could reconstitute perhaps a very small enrichment program, a fraction of what it had, but that could be enough to give it weapon grade uranium for a bomb.”

“They would end its enrichment program and give up its stocks of enriched uranium in a verifiable manner. And that’s the expectation,” the expert added.

Albright urged the US to push the Islamic Republic to acknowledge defeat and avoid sacrificing its people for a nuclear weapon.

“Our challenge in the United States is to get the regime to realize they’ve lost this war… and that they shouldn’t take the view of some authoritarian leaders or dictators where they feel that they’re gonna fight and sacrifice their own people’s welfare… in order to hang on to some… enriched uranium. Is that really worth it?”

“If Iran continues down this path, it could end up sparking some retaliation, or not retaliation, but efforts by Israel to shut the tunnels again and make sure that the sites cannot be used," he warned.

Israeli agents warned Amir-Hossein Farzadi that his father would be targeted unless political prisoners were released.

“It will happen in a few minutes,” one message read. Amir relayed the threat to his uncle, who then evacuated Farzadi from the prison compound just before the deadly strikes, the report said.

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  'Repression bodies': inside the Iranian security apparatus hit by Israel

The Tehran Province Prisons Department dismissed the report, saying that Farzadi was inspecting the prison wards at the time of the strike.

Farzadi has led the notorious prison since 2022 and has been sanctioned by the US and EU for human rights abuses.

“Numerous protesters have been sent to Evin Prison… where they have been subjected to torture and other forms of physical abuse,” the US Treasury Department said in April.

Prior to Evin, Farzadi served at prisons in Kermanshah and Tehran where he oversaw amputations, torture, and alleged sexual violence against inmates. He remains on the US Specially Designated Nationals list.

Throughout its 12-day war on Iran, Israel launched strikes on key state organs tasked with domestic surveillance, protest suppression, detention and propaganda, targeting what it called “repression infrastructure.”

The attacks focused on intelligence and security agencies, judicial and detention systems, and officials overseeing internal control.

Israel framed the strikes as a show of solidarity with Iranian protesters and an effort to disrupt the Islamic Republic’s repressive capacity.

The inquiries, which focused on personal ties with relatives in Israel, mark the most expansive state action against Iranian Jews in decades, HRANA reported.

“Emphasis was placed on avoiding any phone or online communication with abroad,” the rights group cited a source close to the families as saying.

Jews are not the only minority group being targeted. Iranian security forces raided at least 19 homes belonging to members of the Baha’i community during and after the Israel war, human rights groups say.

Analysts say the moves reflect both the state’s effort to project strength and its its reliance on targeting minorities when facing external setbacks.

Rights concerns

Pegah Bani-Hashmi, a senior legal researcher, told Iran International that the accusations of espionage against Jewish and Bahai citizens are “factually baseless and violate Iran’s own constitution.”

“These communities usually stay out of political activism,” she said. “There’s no legal or security justification for what the state is doing.”

Shahin Milani, director of the Human Rights Documentation Center, told Iran International the arrests expose the government’s failure to identify actual threats.

“Baha’is and other citizens don’t have access to classified information. They’re always under surveillance. Accusing them of spying is just an excuse to deflect blame and intimidate the population,” he said.

Iran’s parliament passed a law in 2011 banning travel to Israel. Many Iranian Jews maintain familial and religious ties there, and rights experts say the law has become a tool for suppression.

Community fears grow

A senior figure in Tehran’s Jewish community told HRANA that “we’ve seen limited cases before, but this is unprecedented.” He said the scale of recent summonses has triggered deep concern about the safety of their community.

Authorities have not issued formal charges but told families the actions are intended to gather information to prevent crimes.

Rights lawyers warn that these measures could constitute discrimination based on religion and ethnicity, in breach of Iran’s obligations under international law.

Rani Omrani, an independent journalist, told Iran International that Tehran’s tactics reflect its inability to confront Israel directly.

“Because they can’t reach Israel, they’re punishing innocent Jews at home,” he said.