Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh, a 35-year-old Kurdish prisoner of conscience on death row, has been transferred to solitary confinement in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, Alborz Province, and is at the imminent risk of execution.
KHRN has learned that Khiyareh, currently in his 12th year of imprisonment, was transferred to solitary confinement on 14 December and officials summoned his family for a final meeting, which took place yesterday.
The family were told that the execution could take place on the morning of 18 December.
Khiyareh, from Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence in 2013 and detained for over four years in solitary and general cells in the ministry’s detention facility in Sanandaj and Ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, where he was subjected to physical and psychological torture to extract confessions.
Following his arrest, Iran’s state broadcaster aired a video of his forced confessions alongside other prisoners of conscience.
Several years after his arrest, Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Salavati, sentenced him to death on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) for his alleged membership of religious groups.
Khiyareh was previously transferred to solitary confinement in October 2023 in preparation for execution, but the process was halted for unspecified reasons.
Today, 17 December, Khiyareh’s father released a video message addressed to the Islamic Republic authorities, saying that his son had been transferred to solitary confinement for execution after 12 years in prison, despite an order for his release.
In May 2023, Khiyareh faced an additional charge of “murder” in Branch One of the Criminal Court of Sanandaj, brought by the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Dehgolan, Kurdistan Province.
However, he was acquitted after obtaining the consent of the plaintiff’s family and presenting evidence in his defence.
