In a sign of how bad things have become in Iran, some of those arrested in recent weeks have been relieved to be detained in Evin – a prison in northern Tehran that for decades has been a byword for terror.

It is not that Evin, under the partial control of the fearsome intelligence ministry, has gone soft on the protesters filling its cells since the outbreak of post-election unrest in June. It is just that the options are seen as far worse.