UN report says Israeli airstrike on Iran prison is a war crime

GENEVA, March 16 - The head of a U.N. investigation said on Monday that an Israeli air strike on a prison last year was a war crime, and warned of risks of further repression following the current U.S.-Israeli bombings. Read more at straitstimes.com.

GENEVA, March 16 - The head of a U.N. investigation said on Monday that an Israeli air strike on a prison last year was a war crime, and warned of risks of further repression following the current U.S.-Israeli bombings.

More than 70 people were killed when Israel struck Tehran's Evin prison last June during an air war with Iran, Iranian authorities have said. The jail, known for holding political prisoners, has also been damaged in the latest U.S.-Israeli air strikes, raising fears for the detainees, who include a British couple.

"We found reasonable grounds to believe that, in carrying out the airstrikes on Evin prison, Israel committed the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against a civilian object...," Sara Hossain, chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, told the U.N. Human Rights Council. She said 80 people including one child and eight women had been killed.

Her latest report, based on interviews with victims and witnesses, satellite imagery and other documents, was presented to the Council on Monday.

Israel has disengaged from the council, which documents abuses and conducts investigations, and left its seat empty. There was no immediate response to requests for comment from the prime minister's office, the Foreign Ministry or the military.

Hossain condemned mounting civilian deaths in Iran and voiced concerns that the current bombing campaign could lead Iran to crack down even harder on dissent, pointing to an increase in executions after last year's strikes.